


Stranger Things Have Happened

by Knightqueen



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Community: boromir_eowyn, Essays, F/M, Older Man/Younger Woman, Rare Pairings, Rating: PG13, Relationship Discussions, Ship Manifesto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-04-23 14:23:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14334375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Knightqueen/pseuds/Knightqueen
Summary: A rewritten "essay" concerning the rarepair Boromir of Gondor and Éowyn of Rohan. Originally written in 2010 for ship_manifesto on livejournal.com to promote the communityboromir_eowyn(now on dreamwidth.org). Constructive criticism is definitely welcome.





	1. Chapter 000: Revisiting Old Flames

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author’s Note I:** This was originally written (or rather completed) August 24, 2010 and posted to ship_manifesto the same month. Unfortunately, it wasn’t approved until December 13, 2012, and between 2010 and 2011, I tweaked it a little (on my blog). This is a rewrite of the original as my mindset, almost eight years removed from its original feelings and intentions, reflects how I feel about the ship and characters in the present day. **If you want to read the original meta, just go to chapter seven.**
> 
> The original post on ship_manifesto has since been deleted from LiveJournal because I deactivated mine LiveJournal account last year following changes in the TOS that sent a few people _sort've_ running toward dreamwidth.org, which, to be honest, is still as dead as it was when I frequented the site back in 2012. Enjoy the read. 
> 
> **Author’s Note II:** Whenever I'm referencing the books, I use abbreviations (FOTR, TTT, ROTK). Whenever I'm speaking about the films, I'll use full titles or partial titles (The Fellowship of the Ring, Fellowship).

  


In a series like _The Lord of the Rings_ , romance, or rather, romantic entanglements for J.R.R. Tolkien’s male protagonists and supporting characters, was neither the point of focus nor a major concern. It’s flavor text, an aside in an 20TH Century ‘Epic’ borne from a [otherwise abandoned] dream to create a “pure” (hmmm) mythology exclusive to England. The closest Tolkien ever got to writing a full on romance story in his Middle Earth universe is probably Beren and Luthien from _The Silmarillion_ , and even then that was pretty much just another excuse for his world building obsession as well as a love letter to his wife, Edith Tolkien. 

What “romance” is present in the series is few and far between, and stuffed into the back of ROTK’s appendices or epilogue tales. Only three characters end with some kind of (positive) romantic resolution: Aragorn (son of Arathorn) is finally allowed to marry Arwen Evenstar (daughter of Elrond Half-Elven, Aragorn’s uncle by a few generations?) after he claims kingship over Gondor; Samwise Gamgee finally acts on his romantic inclination toward Rose Cotton, marries her and has a bunch of kids; and, perhaps in the most contested union of all, Eowyn, niece of the late King Théoden, becomes immediately involved with Faramir, the younger brother of the late Boromir of Gondor, and the two have one son together later down the road.

Even as someone who was introduced to the series through Peter Jackson’s trilogy, the question of romance was not something I was preoccupied with. At the age of thirteen, I wouldn’t be remiss to say I was likely going through an anti-Romance phase. I’m not particularly ashamed of that, simply because it eventually led me to the answer of what was actually bothering me about romance in mainstream media and fandom, but couldn’t properly articulate at the time. But, for lack of a better word, none of the canon relationships interested me. I didn’t hate them, but, depending on my mood, I tried to indifferent to them by merely not saying anything about them.

So, it comes to no surprise (to me) that the one couple in the series that got my pulse up and stole my heart in my mid-teendom, in a “holy shit, that could actually work!” sort’ve way, is the one created out of the fandom ether of rarepair hell: Boromir/Eowyn, or as I’ve just come up with – Borowyn (Snaps her violet and pink suspenders).

The idea of Boromir and Eowyn as romantically involved partners was introduced to me around the wee age of sixteen or seventeen (I’m almost thirty now, fucking bonkers, mate!). I stumbled across a story called “To Hate, to Love” by an author named Rosa Cotton. From my recollection, said author was quite popular in most fandom circles when LiveJournal was still a thing and tumblr wasn’t even a thought in the universe. (I think they’re huge _Peter Pan_ fans based on their longstanding icon of Peter and Wendy.)

And ever since I’ve read that particular story, Borowyn as a couple was an idea I wanted to see explored by fandom, but beyond the “arranged marriage” angle that always seemed to be suggested or used on the off-chance someone even mentioned the idea of Borowyn. Given their personalities, theirs was definitely a dynamic that could really work if you ignore three canon facts (and there’s a lot of stuff in LOTR I love ignoring): A): Boromir’s lack of interest in marriage or romantic relationships, and the complete devotion to the life of a soldier during the War of the Ring; B): Boromir’s Death Equals Redemption™ storyline, and, C): Eowyn’s marriage to Faramir.

With that out of the way, let’s get down business. Hold the Huns.


	2. Chapter 001: The Man From Gondor

Boromir’s legacy as a character, now sixty four years removed (come July 2018) from the original release of FOTR, is one halved between two parties. There are those, like myself, that believe Boromir is legitimately misconstrued, and in an effort to bring new perspective, there are times when Boromir fans can be a mite annoying about that. Then there are those who cannot see Boromir beyond anything else besides a man who “betrayed” the Fellowship and attacked Frodo Baggins in an attempt take the One Ring™ for his own. At some point, after realizing who the latter party is, you have to learn to tune them out, or spend the rest of eternity writing lengthy defense posts and that gets boring.

Boromir is something of an innocuous character in FOTR. As far as characters in the book go, he's not particularly remarkable, and I puzzle at how he drew so much ire under the pretense that _the reader understands what the One Ring does to a person_ without stripping them of their free will. Yet, not even his own party seemed to understand the gravity of the Ring until he was killed. Like Eowyn, I believe Boromir presents a clear divide in where Tolkien’s priorities lie in terms of face time and basic interest in his characters.

I don’t think I would be out of turn in saying that Boromir, as he is in the books, is a plot device used to set up Frodo’s departure in FOTR and Tolkien’s self-insert character, Faramir in TTT. (disclaimer: I'm more partial to Faramir's character in the movies). Where Gimli and Legolas are and become fairly prominent characters as the second part of FOTR goes on, where the only natural progression for their characters is to remain at the forefront in TTT and ROTK, Boromir remains strangely exiled to the background. 

Gimli and Legolas form relationships with the Fellowship, Boromir does not, so when he dies, the postmortem praise and fond remembrance he gets (from anyone who isn't his brother or father) seems strange and unearned to me now. So, of all the characters in the book-to-screen adaptation, it’s not a stretch to say Boromir (like Eowyn or Arwen) benefited the most from Jackson, Walsh and Boyens’ efforts and became a far more dimensional character than he was allowed originally.  


_**Who is Boromir?** _

Born in the year 2978 of the Third Age, Boromir II is the son Finduilas of Dol Amroth and Denethor II of (I guess) Minas Tirith, and is the elder brother of Faramir by five years. He was raised under the pretense that he would take his father’s place as the _Ruling Steward_ of Gondor™, a country that seemed magically bound to decay without a King to rule it, despite the number problems the Kingship brought about with their hubris. At the time of FOTR, however, Boromir was [one of] the Captain-General(s) of the armies of Gondor, or rather, Minas Tirith and Osgiliath. (It’s not clear to me.)

Like most fictional characters, Boromir is defined by the meaning of his name (“Steadfast Jewel”). He’s loyal, single-minded and headstrong. He's also charismatic enough that he became a living legend among his people. He’s Thor and the Horn of Gondor is Mjǫllnir. If he’s on your side, he will hardcore to go bat for you. If he isn't, he’s not inclined to trust the motives and decisions of others outside his purview. He'll question you insistently, because his privilege affords him that and will probably take a jab at your place in the social hierarchy. It won’t appreciated by a long shot, but Boromir demonstrates he is not a man to kept in the dark about anything.

Boromir cares a great deal for the people of Gondor, and most of all, his family. It’s what drives him. Despite the marked differences between himself and his father, Denethor, their rapport is as healthy as one can be with a parent who harbors unhealthy idealizations about their child, suffers from an explicit favoritism complex and is abusive to boot. Their differences appear to be what allows them to get on, while Denethor's similarities to Faramir seem to lead them to act like the same side of a magnet.

If there is any uneasiness between them, it is on account of the fact that Denethor thinks less of Faramir. (Most of that is Denethor being bitter about who Faramir takes council with (Gandalf), and, as I saw it, repeating the same abusive behavior his father Ecthelion II visited upon him as a young man when Aragorn was understudying as “Thorongil” and was Ecthelion’s practical “pride and joy”.)

Tolkien makes a point of saying that, despite Denethor’s naked favoritism for his elder son, Boromir and Faramir are neither jealous nor resentful of each other. Boromir is or was Faramir's "protector" (and I can't help but wonder if Tolkien is drawing from his own dynamic with his brother as I know of it) and their relationship is probably as strong as it is because or in spite of Denethor’s behavior. But, even as the favored son, Boromir is hardly spared his father’s misguided intent.

Boromir’s position of leadership comes with pronounced expectations. Denethor expects the world of his son, but probably no more than Boromir expects of himself, and because he’s loyal to his father, he’ll try to rise to the occasion. Denethor thinks so highly of his son's trust, that he doesn't doubt he'll do anything for him, let alone fail in his endeavors. This is evident not only in Denethor's discussions with Gandalf (the White) in ROTK, the flashback sequence in the Extended Edition of _The Two Towers_ , but simply in what Boromir chooses to express to Aragorn in Lothlorien in _The Fellowship of the Ring_.

Lets be frank, be it in the books or the films, Denethor is manipulative. He manipulates Boromir by playing on his affections and loyalties to him, and he manipulates Faramir by denying him fatherly affections and berating him constantly. He uses his position as a parent to make his adult sons constantly question their own decisions. He puts Boromir in a position where he is trying to get his father to see his brother's worth, and he's at the point where he is absolutely irritated with Denethor's behavior. Yet, as a result of Denethor's manipulations, Boromir is reluctant to speak against his father, whatever his problems, especially to strangers. So, he tries to say what’s wrong with coded language. Walsh or Boyens makes note of the fact that Boromir is “torn” between doing what his father asks of him because it’s expected, and doing what he believes is the right thing.

Because of what can only be years of fighting prior to his journey to Rivendell, the stress and the reality of Gondor’s circumstances have left him a pragmatic, desperate, and skeptical man trying to fight off absolute despair. Perhaps it’s because he’s unable to look beyond his own realm’s plight that he firmly believes that Gondor is taking the brunt of Mordor’s assault (as Sauron's forces continue to mount), while other countries (or realms) have been “spared” the worst of it, thanks to Gondor’s proximity to the shadowy lands.

Therefore, because his persistence on the use of the Ring is purely mechanical in nature, I don’t think the rebuffs actually empathize that the One Ring is basically carrying within it a fragment of Sauron’s literal "spirit", only that Boromir (as a man) cannot use it without risk to himself. Even then, Boromir’s sense of spirituality is so smothered by his pessimism that he probably wouldn’t believe it anyway if Elrond and co. were more straight-forward with him about the Ring’s nature. Boromir is speaking from a place of ignorance. He's never seen what the Ring does, so he comfortably dismisses its corruptible nature on some level, because he, unlike almost everyone at the council, was not a witness to its strength.

**_Boromir and the Question of Loyalty_ **

The biggest demonstration of his loyalty to others (and something of a thesis of his character) is when Aragorn, who has bought into the malicious rumors about Rohan paying treaty to Mordor, assumes their disloyalty and more or less dismisses them as a lost cause to the will of Sauron. Boromir comes to their defense immediately. He declares that there is no way Rohan has sworn loyalty to Sauron and to believe the rumors is preposterous. Aragorn doesn't believe him, and he really has to make his point because the would-be King really wanted to debate this with him (a mistake, clearly).

His loyalty to the Fellowship is something of a curious matter because the two mediums set up circumstances differently. In FOTR, he’s in Rivendell to get answers for an extremely self-explanatory riddle. He, Denethor and Faramir hear in a dream about the One Ring, Narsil (the broken sword of the King) and the Hobbit in procession of the Ring. (When I think about it, this is kind’ve a weak set up for Boromir to be there at all. They could’ve hammered out the answer in Minas Tirith with basic deduction.) 

There’s this whole backstory in TTT (IIRC) where there was a council meeting that decided Faramir should be the one to go (because he’s learned and scholarly), but Boromir decides he should go anyway regardless of that higher up decision. Denethor and the council are reluctant to agree to it, largely because they think he should remain in Gondor and focus on their military defense. And TTT and ROTK pretty much drive home the point that Boromir going to Rivendell was a mistake and he definitely should've stayed in Minas Tirith.

Boromir makes it clear that he doesn’t agree with their decision to “walk into Mordor” and destroy the One Ring. He simply concedes to their wisdom when he’s out-argued. That much becomes clear when he tries to convince Frodo to come to Minas Tirith with the Ring at the end of the book. After Aragorn announces that he’s going to Minas Tirith to claim the throne, Boromir’s path with the Fellowship is circumstantial, and only as far as the road to Minas Tirith. After that, he’s gone, he’s back to worrying about the war front and Gondor's survival. Technically speaking, he has no real oath or bond to the Fellowship's mission, not just in terms of how Elrond gives them leave to depart whenever, but that he is literally not in their circle of implicit trust.

In the Extended Edition of _The Two Towers_ , it’s established that (at the very least) that Boromir, Denethor and Faramir know that the One Ring is bad news, was taken from Sauron, and brought Isildur to his death (not just that it belonged to Sauron and disappeared). Like how Eowyn has the dream about the Great Wave in _Return of the King_ , only Boromir has the vague dream telling him that the One Ring has been found in _Fellowship_. (The exclusion of the broken sword and the talk of halflings actually made the dream's meaning a puzzle, but the flashback rather demystifies it and I start asking, "okay, so, when did he have this dream? Before or after he spoke with Denethor?") 

Denethor learns that Elrond has called a council in Rivendell that required the presence of the Free Peoples of Middle Earth. _The Fellowship of the Ring_ more or less implies (with Elrond’s voiceover) he sent out a summons to everyone who mattered, but with the way Denethor talks, Gondor wasn't invited (lmao). He "guesses" the meeting is about the One Ring and understandably, I think a lot of people assume Denethor used the Palantír to this figure out.

Boromir makes it clear that he's not interested in seeking the Ring and wants to remain in Gondor with his people. When Faramir volunteers (in the hopes of winning his father's favor), we’re never really given the impression that Boromir is against the idea of his brother going in his stead, but he’s not really given the chance. Denethor summarily rejects Boromir's objection and Faramir's suggestion. Boromir is sent to Rivendell to explicitly obtain the One Ring and bring it Gondor. An idea he clearly harbors disagreement with, it being “Isildur's Bane” and all.

So, in _Fellowship_ , even though he argues both in his and his father’s favor not to destroy the Ring and is clearly enthralled by it from the jump, he decides he’ll join the Fellowship. I think he views the decision of the council as just, or sees Frodo's actions as admirable enough that he'll help him. Here, Boromir’s loyalty and bond is explicitly made to the Fellowship and its mission (even with the pretense that he can leave whenever). He’s not going back to Minas Tirith any time soon and is actively going against his father’s order.

**_Boromir and the Question of His Relationships_ **

Because of how it’s written, Boromir in FOTR feels like an outsider, but I think it's better to say he is effectively a minor character. He drifts in and out of the narrative in a way that gave me the impression that Boromir was never quite there or existed as a character like he did in the chapters “The Council of Elrond”, "The Bridge of Khazad Dum", and "The Breaking of the Fellowship", where he was not only heard, but present and crucial to the subject of the chapter. No one really considers Boromir a threat to the Fellowship, or becomes wary of him. Then Gandalf dies, and everybody’s begins to question his presumption that they’re following him to Minas Tirith as they're confused about what their next choice'll be without the wizard to lead them. I don’t believe this is the case in _Fellowship_ , where he feels far more integrated within the group and is trying to help them destroy the Ring, even as he’s tempted by it and clearly tries to maneuver it toward Gondor with suggestions like traveling through the Gap of Rohan (which is dangerously close to Isengard).

Of his eight companions, only four can really fight. In FOTR, Boromir only appears to get on really well with Gimli on the basis of casual conversation and the occasional ribbing of each other. Boromir's relationship with Merry and Pippin feels more non-existent in FOTR than I remember (a consequence of filling in the blanks, I guess?) As I'm reminded that Boromir also looked after Sam and Frodo during the mountainous climb (whereas in the film, Sam and Frodo are pretty much under Aragorn's wing only), Merry and Pippin’s regard for Boromir seems largely because of his general safeguard of their personhood at Amon Hen as he was near-killed in front of them.

They never got to know him like they do Faramir (who ends up with a namesake in one of Pippin's children), so I think its a bit weird when folk always wonder "why weren't any of Merry and Pippin's kids named after Boromir?" They didn't know him like that. The Boromir/Merry/Pippin dynamic is probably better realized in _The Fellowship of the Ring_ purely in a visual sense, because we see them getting on (that one time) instead of it only being told Boromir is protecting them. His affection and concern is not only shown, but verbalized.

When it comes to his relationship with Aragorn? In FOTR, I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that the two don’t actually have a relationship. They work together, sure, and share a high opinion of each other’s skill, but, in general they’re the definition of strangers traveling in the same direction. And Boromir’s misunderstandings of certain things get to a point where I don’t even think Aragorn respects Boromir until he’s dying, dead, and realizes what happened to him. (Tolkien really drives home he feels somewhat terribly about how things turned out between them.) But, Boromir appears* to take the news that Aragorn is the intended King of Gondor better than he does in _The Fellowship of the Ring_ , where his objection to Aragorn is far more apparent and not unwarranted, honestly (given that Aragorn actively rejected his responsibility out of fear). He makes it plain that he wasn’t looking for a king to save Gondor, but Aragorn’s help would be appreciated nonetheless.

On the flipside, Aragorn (who comes off as really self-important and a bit mean-spirited in the books) seems affronted that Boromir dare question his right to kingship with doubt in FOTR just because he showed him Narsil (pre-reforging), verses his uncertainty about taking that leadership role in _Fellowship_ on account of his self-doubt. Boromir's relationship with Gandalf in FOTR feels like a non-issue. A lot of folks presume he doesn't trust Gandalf because he's a wizard and his father isn't crazy about him, but for the most part, I don't think Boromir is invested in getting to know Gandalf like Faramir did. He's indifferent, but knows him well enough to show him respect. Around the time Boromir begins to feel invisible in the book, he usually comes back to the forefront when it’s time to argue with Aragorn or Gandalf, or make an off-color remark about Elves that Aragorn dislikes.

He has to argue to get Gandalf to think about the welfare of the Fellowship over the objective, even at the risk of drawing unwanted attention. Other times, he doesn’t agree with most of the travel decisions Aragorn and Gandalf make. The one time he feels justified is when they enter Moria and Gandalf dies. He was really against entering the place based on its poor reputation and the circumstances following only prove him right. Boromir spends a lot of time grumbling because no one agrees with him, and I suppose that was Tolkien’s way of getting across that Boromir really isn’t a great follower (which is kinda _necessary_ as a leader).

In _The Fellowship of the Ring_ , Boromir has no problem with following the orders of others, and his camaraderie with Aragorn as it progresses through the film I think translates better through the subtle body-language and chemistry shared between their actors (I about died when Philippa called them “almost like lovers”). Even with the rocky start in Rivendell, they operate well together as a fighting team (highlighted in Moria). And only it’s after the death of Gandalf (whom Boromir really doesn’t interact with in the film), that Boromir chooses to be really candid with Aragorn and Aragorn reciprocates, if not reluctantly.

They have a real bond here. Yet, what little connection they make is fractured when Boromir’s anxieties about Minas Tirith, the Ring, and his irritation toward Aragorn’s distrust of men reaches its high point, and Aragorn cuts him down by making it clear he does not trust Boromir or the world of men (given the circumstances). They’re back at square one and it’s not until Aragorn is simply too late to help Boromir that the two try to make amends. Aragorn earns Boromir’s respect once and for all and is the most changed of the two men. In either FOTR or _The Fellowship of the Ring_ , Boromir is the catalyst that pushes Aragorn to take responsibility for the safeguard of Gondor because, as a dying man, Boromir simply cannot.

Despite his relative distance with most of the Fellowship, Boromir was ultimately an invaluable asset to the group’s welfare and defense. The earliest part of their journey through the Misty Mountains and Caradhras in FOTR is probably the strongest example in the novel. Whether or not he believed in their barmy plan ultimately didn’t matter when all is said and done.

**_Boromir and Characterization_ **

When it comes to the characterization of Boromir – what represents him as a character – what’s on the page does a fairly decent job of allowing you to infer who he is if the text isn't saying "Boromir is [blank]". Boromir is straight to the point and doesn’t mince words about how he feels, personally or with regard to others. His frankness, however, if it’s not about something he knows, is often borne of ignorance with regard to other cultures – which is largely fueled by superstition. He distrusts elves based on their aloofness and general disregard for men (elves [instigated conflict between men](http://madtomedgar.tumblr.com/post/161300203302/a-short-history-of-the-dunlendings-and-the) at times as well, so it’s not like man's mistrust is completely unwarranted). He seems less prejudiced toward Dwarves, who are isolationists by nature, so his regard toward them is more uncertain and misinformed than one fraught with discord.

He takes correction in stride, largely because he’s present when his preconceived notions are challenged or altered. Boromir’s position as a General leaves him predisposed to look after the welfare of others (where those like Gandalf, a Maiar, might be prone to forget the differences between mortal and demi-god). He offers aid without question, and tries to be proactive about his circumstances rather than be defeated by them. His persistence in that defense is enough to inspire others to help him (Frodo helping him keep the door in Balin's tomb closed, for example.) In both TTT and the appendices, a big to do is made about the fact that Boromir is preoccupied with the military and wished to model himself after King Earnur, the last ruling King of Gondor who was abducted by the Witch King of Angmar. While Boromir fights out of a necessity – the desire to protect his home, he also enjoys fighting in the sense that it satisfies him, like any warrior (which you can see in the chapter "The Bridge of Khazad dum"). However, for Tolkien (who only saw fighting or warfare as only as a necessity), this is a clear negative trait.

Boromir is a proud and an honorable man, one with a reputation among the Riders of Rohan to be akin to their forebears (like the sons of Eorl) as opposed to any man of Gondor. But how he's portrayed in either medium, seems incredibly at odds with the image, even among Tolkien purists, fandom has created of him. Fanfiction writers usually portray him as this surly man who is incredibly combative, argumentative and sour-faced at almost every turn when the opportunity presents itself. 

His characterization in fanfiction can really be summed up to "Boromir is hyper-aggressive for no reason". He fights with Legolas, he is always in disagreement with Aragorn, he conspires to cause trouble with Gimli (who is also typically portrayed as overly-aggressive). It's not dissimilar to the exaggerated portrayals of Legolas and Gimli's antagonism, which, for the most part, is understated and passive-aggressive in either medium. Fanfiction Boromir is not the guy who'd consider the welfare of the Fellowship, he's the guy you avoid because he's always looking to cause trouble.

Some part of me thinks this because Tolkien only ever seems to make Boromir’s voice the strongest when he’s in disagreement with someone, or says something out of turn.* I think this is where the problem of Tolkien’s characterization comes into play with his works. Tolkien tells you just enough about Boromir that he passes as a character, but you really don’t get to know Boromir like you do Gimli and Legolas, who have their moments, but are generally better realized than Boromir because they are always present in the narrative and never drift into the background. Even with people posthumously praising or criticizing Boromir in TTT, it feels hollow without the character actually being present to reinforce it. Boromir doesn't get to develop as a character, which is a problem, and even with supplementary material, Boromir feels like a character you end up filling in the blanks for.

Boromir is quick to become frustrated or impatient, but the scene where he throws a stone into the water occupied by the Watcher, feels dissonant from the rest of him. Every time I reread that chapter, I often wonder what Tolkien was thinking about, because even with what minor detail we're given about Boromir at the start of Book II in FOTR, him throwing a stone into some suspicious looking water does not gel with the rest of his character, a guy who would hyper aware of the dangers of drawing attention in an alien environment. And to that end I’m glad _The Fellowship of the Ring_ just switched that from Boromir to Pippin and Merry, two characters who haven't quite had the reality of situation fall on their heads.

I don’t think Boromir is as different as most Tolkien Purists tend to purport. A lot of opinions I see about his depiction in _The Fellowship of the Ring_ and _The Two Towers_ purports that he was “romanticized”. What I think is that Sean Bean, Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens do a better job of making Boromir a fully realized character than Tolkien did because they made him a bigger focus point in the story where Tolkien simply wasn’t interested if it didn’t involve Boromir disagreeing about something. Then there’s the fact that they make him a member of the Fellowship as opposed to someone just traveling alongside them.

I think you can say this about anyone who isn't the four Hobbits (where the heart and soul of the stories lie), but Boromir is a underwritten character. Tolkien uses characters like Eomer, Théoden, Denethor, and Faramir, who speak about Boromir _after_ his death in TTT and ROTK, as a means of fleshing him out after the fact. Excluding Faramir (who, weird enough, holds a childhood memory of Boromir asking Denethor why he wasn’t king of Gondor, against him), they really talk about him like he’s a fallen god. But, in general, the impression basically is that Tolkien was trying really hard to compensate for the lack of face time Boromir got. He retroactively tries to earn the death of Boromir, but I don’t think it works.

So, it’s to the benefit in _Fellowship_ , and virtue of his actor (Sean Bean), that Boromir’s connection to Merry and Pippin is visually realized, and rapport with Aragorn is stronger, even when the two are at odds. Jackson, Walsh and Boyens visualize the positive sentiments said of Boromir in the TTT through Faramir’s flashback in the Extended Edition of _The Two Towers_. It’s one of the many liberties they take with the source material that works in the character’s favor rather than against him.

Personalizing his death with the creation of Lurtz not only provides his proceeding death with far more impact, it also allows us to see Merry and Pippin’s abduction, all of which happens off-screen in the novels. Coming off the heartbreaking high that is end of _The Fellowship of the Ring_ and then reading TTT’s “The Departure of Boromir” is a rather passionless affair. 

He just dies. And while I’ve seen the argument that Tolkien was attempting “realism” in that scene, I think he just wanted to move the story along, and the utter dissatisfaction will forever gnaw at the back of my head given what I’ve expressed above. The theatricality of his death in _The Fellowship of the Ring_ actually wearies me enough where I have to ask “do I wanna watch this right now?” It’s pretty much the whole reason I’m eternally left with the gnawing question “okay, but did Boromir really have to die?” while the other part of me sometimes say, “I’m okay with Boromir dying.” I don’t ever feel like I was given that connection in FOTR or TTT.

**_Boromir and the Tragedy of Flaws_ **

Boromir is a particularly flawed and standard human being, who lost hope, but ultimately had to make some kind of concession at death’s door. Maybe it’s the “solace” he gets in death in FOTR when Aragorn tells him “Minas Tirith shall not fall”, or, as _The Fellowship of the Ring_ depicted, the actual hope Aragorn gives him because he finally started believing in man.

There are a times when I feel like Tolkien is a bit judgmental toward characters who aren’t able to resist the manipulation of the darkness, and looks down on those who lose hope and fall into despair (every character who does either meets a horrible end, or needs to learn a lesson of some sort) and just don’t see a way out. So, for me, how Boromir’s end is portrayed in _Fellowship_ (where it's not a result of his actions, but merely being overwhelmed with no immediate help) verses FOTR (the author is proactively punishing Boromir for falling into despair and trying to take the Ring out of jealousy) is sort’ve a big deal for me.

Boromir is fallible, like just about everybody in the company, but how Tolkien wrote the character meant he was to be defined by his flaws primarily and meant to be the example of that in the narrative, like Gollum is in the last two books. To draw a comparison to Eowyn, Tolkien makes a point highlighting these two characters through their hubris or ambition, the things they cannot have or should not want. And in both cases, their hubris (as it were) is intrinsically tied to their desire to protect their homeland. Boromir wants the Ring because its nature has led to him believe it can protect Gondor, and as a result, he overestimates his strength against the will of the Ring.

He doesn’t respect either the warnings that were provided, or the strength of his enemy, and ends up dying with shame hanging over his head. Eowyn, wants her right to fight to be respected and she wants to earn her moment of glory, the narrative protests that she shouldn’t want to. So, her moment on the battlefield is framed as cautionary rather than celebratory when her literal self-image is shattered, and in the aftermath, abandoned for a turn into medicine.

Boromir’s sword, a representation of his strength and Gondor's defense, is broken by the Uruk-hai; Eowyn’s shield and arm, the representation of her desire and the defense of Rohan, is broken by the Witch King. In both their cases, these symbols define their hubris and what they need to change or discard to become “better”, morally speaking.

Pride is a particular issue with Boromir, and it's one of the flaws that Ring works on. When it turns out he's as corruptible as anyone, he has a breakdown. He is set up as opposition to the "purity" that Faramir’s character is supposed to represent for Tolkien in the TTT*, verses Faramir’s flawed and less idealized character in _The Two Towers_ and _Return of the King_ , who shares to the mortality or humanity that Boromir represents in either medium. Boromir’s good intention to use the One Ring to save Gondor, without really understanding that it was merely an embodiment of his enemy’s soul and therefore "pure evil", blinded him to its dangers and his fears were exploited by Sauron.

Boromir’s death is a classic case of an author redeeming a character led astray by killing him, which is par-for-the-course in Epic Tales™ or basic mythology. Boromir is the man whose punishment is disproportional to his transgressions. It's a kind moralization in storytelling most in my circle (and I’m not referring to the LOTR fandom when I say this) don’t agree with on any level unless the character designed to be irredeemable. What mistake is so terrible that a character, who has otherwise been fighting to protect others, has to die for it to earn redemption or forgiveness?

Most folk won’t come to appreciate the Boromir character until they’re much older or repeated viewings or readings bring new perspectives. That’s how it happened with me. In general, I think this is because Boromir’s flaws are empathized moreso than anyone else’s in the story, save Frodo (who gets called a weakling by casual and hardcore LOTR fandom alike).  


At the end of the day, no matter how much you tout his positives and juxtapose them with his negatives, some (or most) will never remember Boromir as anything other than a character of weak moral character, or a villain. In a small way, I can understand why, sometimes. Honestly, when his story ends in his death, his last moments stay the longest out of everything, regrettably. The narrative is closed to him, he can’t develop beyond that one moment and therefore changes minds in that way.

And it’s in that reason why I think the fantasy, sixteen years on (for me and a few others I figure, even as LOTR fic slows down once more) of what might’ve happened if he survived remains such a compelling subject for Boromir fans. Granted, it’s a hit or miss formula, no matter how well-written or how close to canon it’ll stick, but it is a formula that doesn’t tire for most because it’s a damn sight more interesting than writing “What was Boromir thinking when he died?”, “Boromir’s death from his POV” or “How [insert character here] felt about Boromir’s death” a billion times over. And someone’s always going about it differently.

Boromir’s passing is one the most tragic of endings for a character in Tolkien’s legendarium of Middle Earth. For me, anyway, because that’s the only person I’m speaking for.

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* **NOTES:** In TTT, Faramir says Boromir’s acceptance and respect of Aragorn’s claim to the throne wasn't wholly honest (this feels like retconning to me). He would’ve become petty and jealous about the whole situation when realizing he'd have no power to rule and basically restart a Kin-strife (a civil war) to reclaim it. (That's how I interpreted it.) After reading _The Treason of Isengard_ (which placed a lot of emphasis of Boromir being "dark" (skinned?) but "noble" verses "fair [faced] and"noble" in the final version), I can't help think this is Tolkien not quite being able to let go of his idea where Boromir was originally supposed to be nothing more than Aragorn’s rival and an antagonist for the throne of Gondor. That was only reason he survived in on the earlier versions of “The Breaking of The Fellowship” as opposed to dying like he did in the final product (IIRC). I'm not sure Tolkien ever really had the highest opinion of Boromir. He was effectively the human antagonist (but without the overt maliciousness) and even after the rewrite, he was preoccupied with that. Faramir’s commentary about his brother in this case, always sounded like thinly veiled insincerity. And of the adaptions of the books I've consumed, however the Faramir part of the story is dealt with, this particular bit of dialog about Boromir is usually omitted or outright ignored.

 ***NOTES II:** The other part of me wants to blame Ralph Bakshi's better-off-forgotten adaptation (which pretty much vilified him) and the BBC Radio drama (which is pretty good) carries on that legacy because the late Michael Graham Cox reprises his role as Boromir and repeats all he did in Bakshi's film on truncated level. But, first impressions are everything, so I can't discount that there were folk that saw Boromir’s reaction to Aragorn in _Fellowship_ and believed it encompassed his entire persona despite _Fellowship_ (theatrical and extended) and _Towers_ (extended) proving otherwise.

 ***NOTES III:** Most of the time, I think Tolkien using terms like "pure" to describe how "morally upstanding" a character was in his stories, was trying to allude to attitude. But, his pension to associate that talk of moral purity with how "true" a character's bloodline is not only problematic, but bordered on obnoxious. Its the clearest demonstration that he was big believer in class hierarchy ("mind your betters"). All three characters are noblemen (rich bitches), but I never liked how he waxed poetic about how Aragorn and Faramir (in particular) were "true" or "pure" Numenorean men in comparison to Boromir. Mostly because, with Boromir's comparison to men of Rohan came with the implication that the Rohirrim were lesser men ("ordinary men") in comparison to those closer in their relation to the Numenoreans. Whether it was because they were ordained by the Valar to govern man, unlike the men of Rohan, doesn't matter in the long run. Tolkien's favoritism toward the Numenoreans in that sense is eugh.


	3. Chapter 002: A Shieldmaiden in Name Only?

Boromir seemed to drop in and out of the narrative of FOTR, and only really becomes a major player in the final chapter (“The Breaking of the Fellowship”) before returning to status quo in the first chapter of TTT (“The Departure of Boromir”). Eowyn as a character is so minimal in TTT and ROTK, that the character feels as though she is quite literally _fighting_ to be included in the narrative that would sooner forget her, rather than actually allow her to participate in it.

Tolkien’s biggest problems (that aren't racism and classism), as someone more preoccupied with his world vs. his characters, is characterization and the general lack of presence women have in LOTR, which is fueled by (what fandom calls) his "benign" sexism. Revisiting the books never seems to lessen the sting that Arwen and Eowyn, two of the biggest (and only major) female characters in the film (surpassing Galadriel), are in the books so little, and on a whole don't impact the narrative in such a way that removing them would drastically alter the story (it wouldn't). And between the three ("major") women present in LOTR, Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens probably did the biggest kindnesses for the characters Arwen and Eowyn, who, through their efforts, become more than “fair” and “beautiful” women as they were described at the beginning and end of their textual stories.

But, like Boromir, both Eowyn and Arwen are YMMV kind of characters: You either like them or you don’t. Focusing on just Eowyn, I think it’s largely through accident that her storyline became regarded as an inspiring and encouraging one, and largely because it only _kind've_ bucks the expected trend at time TTT and ROTK was published, but sticks firmly to the status quo. And even in the face of modern media, where white female characters (as supporting and lead figures in film and books) were not bereft of strong representation, girls my age (at the time the films helped a lot of people discover Tolkien's books), but not necessarily me, would've counted her among figures like Xena.

Unlike Boromir, Eowyn is a character that has to repeatedly argue her position to people who would set her aside, and while she achieves what she wants, I think the thing that works against Tolkien’s intentions with Eowyn is the very mythology that he draws from, his own ideas about a woman’s place in the military, and maybe the simple inability that he couldn’t replicate with Eowyn what he did with Luthien. But I’ll be honest and say, I don’t know which character came first in his writing process, so maybe that’s a paradox counterargument.

_**Who is Eowyn?** _

Eowyn was born 2995 of the Third Age to Théodwyn of Edoras, and Éomund of the Eastfold. The younger sister of Eomer (b. T.A 2991) by four years, she is the niece of King Théoden of Edoras, Théodwyn's brother. On her mother’s side she had three aunts (who are never mentioned) and her family presumably lived in Aldburg, the former seat of the King of Rohan, where Éomund was the lord of (IIRC). Within the trappings of Eowyn and Eomer’s backstory, there are a pair of protagonists in the rough, but Tolkien keeps them strictly minor characters. 

Eowyn and Eomer lived a fairly comfortable life in Aldburg as children up until 3002 of the Third Age. In that year, both their parents die: Éomund in combat (he got himself killed being brash and running headlong into the enemy), and Théodwyn, so broken over his death, she, in the words of her brother, wasted away from a grief which she (understandably) did not recover from. Eowyn was seven and Eomer was eleven at the time of their passing. Because Eowyn and Eomer’s aunts are basically just window dressing in their mother’s tiny backstory, there’s no talk of them going to live with any of them. Instead, they were left in the care of Théoden, who more or less became both mother and father to them.

Eowyn and Eomer are both incredibly privileged children despite their tragedy. Raised in Théoden’s court with their cousin (Théoden’s son), Theodred, the Prince of Rohan, the two experience different kinds of successes in their privilege, and of course, it’s all entirely gender-based. Eomer goes on to become “The Third Marshal of the Mark” in Rohan’s military (Theodred is the second and Théoden is the first IIRC) and, in terms of the political area, Eowyn is considered wise and learned enough to govern the people of Meduseld with their full support behind her, despite the obvious surprise and uncertainty of Theoden.

When we’re introduced to them in TTT, hardships brought about by the War of the Ring have left them cornered in a place of hopelessness and desperation. Saruman the White, who has spent decades conspiring against the Free Peoples of Middle Earth in name of his own particular rise to power, supplants Théoden using a man named Grima Wormtongue, who spies in Saruman’s name. Through Wormtongue, their uncle is poisoned against the safeguard and betterment of his people, therefore weakening a major ally of Gondor and harming someone they care for dearly.

Sort’ve like with how the circumstances with Boromir’s arrival in Rivendell and his relationship to the Ring changes, how Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens portray the plight of Meduseld in _The Two Towers_ verses TTT is markedly different. TTT is 100% vague about what Théoden’s problem is. I guess something magical is the root of his problems, but by all rights he seems to be of his right mind and is only acting like Denethor. He seems to truly believe in everything Wormtongue says to him about Gandalf and or any issue concerning the welfare of Rohan. He doesn’t think he has to suspect Wormtongue of any wrongdoing despite the clear disagreement Eomer and the others of his court have with him. So, in the TTT, Théoden comes off looking a man easily duped and if Rohan was democratic society and not a Monarchy, he definitely would not have been reelected for his position. Eowyn, who is often left alone in the company of Wormtongue, is harassed by him (as her brother later realizes), and is more or less a victim of her uncle’s inaction.

In _The Two Towers_ , Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens take the idea of Théoden being poisoned against Rohan and its allies literally. There’s the implication that Wormtongue has a silver tongue, maybe something close to what Saruman has in terms of being able to influence or manipulate people with his voice. Moreover, he seems to act as the literal conduit between Théoden and Saruman, which allows the wizard to literally possess Théoden’s body and renders him incapable of doing anything except waste away while Wormtongue calls the shots. So, when Eomer and Eowyn implore Théoden to allow them to take active steps against the Uruk-hai and the Wild Men tearing homesteads apart, Théoden literally cannot help them.

Wormtongue makes it so that Eomer is removed from the equation altogether when he gets him banished with the “consent” of the King, and Eowyn is left in Meduseld where her cousin later dies, and her uncle is basically dying a spiritual death in front of her. And with Wormtongue able to harass her as he wishes, she nearly falls for his game when he nails just how trapped she is by her circumstances. For lack of a better word, Eowyn’s circumstances come off far more oppressive in her introductory film. Of course, this is because shes present and her issues are not merely spoken about like in the books.

_**Eowyn the “Shieldmaiden”** _

With the regard to Nordic and Germanic mythology, Shieldmaidens from the Viking sagas remain a point of contention among historians. Some of them believe were real women, while others are content to believe they were fictional characters like the Valkyrie, who's narrative paths often crosses with shieldmaidens. And this is reportedly because all the information about them was presumably written after the Viking era by descendants, not during it.

Tolkien’s legendarium isn’t bereft of women who were able to "fight"* per say, but Tolkien has effectively created a patriarchal society where women are invisible, have "ordained" roles (marriage, childbirth, motherhood, and death), and are not true warriors in the way someone like Aragorn is. With regard to Shieldmaidens, either as a culture or women trained as a fighting force in Rohan’s military, while TTT and ROTK never outright disproves their existence, the usage of the term seems to be Tolkien wanting to throw in some reference to his reverence for Norse mythology and nothing more.

Eowyn is the sole Shieldmaiden in all of Rohan. There are no other warrior women in her culture (alive) on top of there being no other human women she can interact with. The title only seems to exist in the text so that the reader knows Eowyn can “can use a sword” and that’s about it. Even with Eowyn's mettle on display in the story, I’d go as far as saying it’s a misuse of the title on Tolkien’s part given the mythology that backs it. Eowyn’s title of “shieldmaiden” only seems to be purely ceremonial or "in name only" and that's probably the most befitting description of her title.

In _The Two Towers_ , after she’s caught practicing with a sword by a curious Aragorn who compliments her "skill with a blade", Eowyn says to him, “The women of this country learned long ago, those without swords can still die upon them.” When she admits to fearing being trapped and rendered useless, Aragorn remarks on the fact that Eowyn holds the honor of being a “shieldmaiden of Rohan”. Like they interpreted Faramir's line about his life becoming "forfeit" if he doesn't bring Frodo to Minas Tirith, Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens seem to believe (or decided) that there were or are other warrior woman trained like Eowyn and existed in Rohan. It's an occupation, it's a role, it's not just a title, but we know (particular from her conversation with Eomer in _Return of the King_ ) that Eowyn has never seen an actual battle. And at this point, the audience, quite familiar with shows like _Xena: Warrior Princess_ , a series overflowing with (white) warrior women on different mediums, is now championing the moment she gets to fight.  


The 2013 historical fantasy-drama, _Vikings_ on the History Channel (a male run show bereft of its own issues on how its treats fighting or political women), takes the concept of the shieldmaiden in modern media to its logical conclusion and probably embodies best what a lot of people believed Eowyn represented based on the limited information proved in TTT and ROTK or the films. In the show they’re defensive fighters, using their shields to reinforce the “shield walls” and some of them hold fairly strong political positions within their community and teach their daughters to become shieldmaidens if they so wish. The women in the series participate and are reared in the war-like culture of the vikings, even with the ever presence threat of sexism looming over their heads. Since the show's debut, the want to either prove or disprove that shieldmaidens were a factual thing appears all the stronger.

Where Eomer holds a fairly strong position within Rohan’s army (Third Marshal of the Mark), Eowyn was never allowed to participate in the defense of her home, not even for skirmishes. Instead, she looks after an ailing Théoden and it doesn’t escape her that’s always a woman left to that duty. Soon thereafter, she mourns the death of her cousin, Theodred, who is killed in battle, and her brother continues to fall out of favor to the point he is branded a traitor.

In TTT, when it comes time take on the Uruk-hai, Eowyn is nominated (by Hama, I think) to act as “Lord of Meduseld” until Théoden and Eomer return from Helms Deep (or the Hornburg). In what can only be a major blow to her pride, Eowyn gets dressed to fight, but can only farewell the men as they leave Meduseld. Even though her title only serves only as a last defense if [all] the men of court of Meduseld die in battle, she probably wouldn’t even able to fight then, because who else will govern Edoras if she (the last of the House of Eorl) dies in battle? No, Eowyn’s circumstances make it so that she’ll never see war like she wants.

Eowyn wants to be seen and treated like an equal among the men in the military, and to be respected as a fighter she was trained to be. Aragorn understands that much, but every valid counterargument he makes about how invaluable she is as a leader for her people while Théoden and Eomer go to war is understandably viewed by the young woman as a deflection for things no one would say to her brother (or men in general) if he made his case to fight instead of act as the leader for Edoras.

She’s not wrong. With Eomer as his only living heir, Théoden probably could’ve seen to his protection by making them both standbys in the Golden Hall. But because Théoden sees Eomer’s knowledge as Marshal indispensable to his war against Saruman, Eomer has to come with him. Nevermind that puts his entire family line at risk, Eomer has the privilege of ignoring that. Eowyn’s disadvantage is that she doesn’t have that card to bargain with, she was never given the opportunity.

_**Eowyn and the POV of her Despair** _

Eowyn is widely recognized as a woman in the throes of depression and suicidal thoughts. On some level, she is one of the most approachable characters in the series because of her state of mind. However, a large part of the narrative that handles her storyline divorces Eowyn from her suicidal depression in favor of representing it through the points of view of other characters, and in such a way that it's a reduction of her character arc.

Like Boromir, Eowyn is lost to despair for a long time, she's trapped in what feels like a hopeless situation and circumstances. But, where Boromir's despair and depression is all but ignored in FOTR (but touched upon in _Fellowship_ ), in favor of hyper-focusing on his pride as a narrative justification for punishing him through death, Eowyn's depression is an active catalyst in her narrative act. Because she's a woman, she really can’t do anything to remedy malady that aggravates her depression. There's no one around who will listen to her, let alone support her, thus, the depression brought on by escalating circumstances drive Eowyn to seek death as absolution. The life she leads is not the life she wants. It's got her scratching at the walls, so what better escape is there than death, preferably in battle if she can achieve it?

I can see what Tolkien wanted to do with Eowyn’s story, but she gets overshadowed by the overarching plot of the series. What little that remains of Eowyn’s story is so front loaded at the beginning of ROTK's first part, it isn’t given the time to breathe. And it’s here, where Tolkien is more concerned with the broad strokes of the story and not character subplots, that I don’t think he earns Eowyn’s moment against the Witch King because of it. She and her moment are kind’ve sacrificed for the greater story.

A lot about how we're told about Eowyn's depression and despair is through the point of view of others, because as far as Tolkien is concerned, Eowyn's point of view isn't a necessary component in achieving this. In TTT, Theoden and the sexual harassment she endures from Wormtongue are major proponents in aggravating her state of mind. Theoden's ignorance of his adviser's predatory behavior leaves her vulnerable, and through his harassment, Eowyn still has to support her uncle where no else will. On top of sexually harassing her, Wormtongue "poisoned" Eowyn with words that ate away at her self-worth and she had no means to escape him. The only time Wormtongue's predatory behavior is confronted, it's with male characters like Eomer and Gandalf. Eomer threatens to kill Wormtongue (pretty much) for harassing his sister, but Eowyn herself never gets to confront him for terrorizing her. Gandalf reassures Eomer that Eowyn is safe from Wormtongue now that Theoden is "freed" of his influence, but he never directly reassures Eowyn of this at all (Eowyn is not present during that scene). The narrative is more concerned with Eomer's _reaction_ to Eowyn's crisis and doesn't once consider Eowyn's POV necessary.

Inkling's of Eowyn's depression are touched upon again through Aragorn's point of view. He picks up on her distress when she offers him the chalice, but, again, it's divorced from Eowyn, who's POV is once again ignored because she is the epitome of a minor character with no stake in the primary narrative of TTT. Additionally, knowing that the passage is also an allusion to Eowyn's sudden oncoming of romantic feelings for Aragorn, effectively distracts the reader from her depressive distress and has them zero in on the romance that Tolkien is "hinting" at, but will ultimately never act on. Every passage afterward hyper-focuses on Eowyn's attraction to Aragorn, and for a time, allusions to Eowyn's depression (expressed through points of view not her own) are forgotten until she reappears in ROTK.

In ROTK, Eowyn is offered a moment with Aragorn to express her grievances with being cast aside, and her desire to fight viewed as misguided in light of the equally important responsibilities to govern Meduseld. Eowyn tells Aragorn point-blank that she wants to escape the toxic situation she's been trapped in for years, but Aragorn, not once, but twice, tells her that her duties are more important than her desire to battle. He also summarily rejects her request to join him on his quest to raise the dead men of Dunharrow (largely because he doesn't have the power to permit her to follow). Eowyn publicly displays her despair, she's on her knees begging him to reconsider, but he rejects her still. The one time Eowyn's despair is told through her point of view, it's not romanticized through pity, but punished because she doesn't want to be responsible for the safeguard of Meduseld and its people. The role is explicitly tied her to what she believes have been inescapable circumstances, but she has little choice but to occupy it.

The expression of Eowyn's despair continues to be illustrated outside of her POV with Merry Brandybuck, who doesn't recognize her as "Dernhelm". Eowyn's wish for death is observed by Merry who studies her eyes (her face is obscured by a helmet). Because the reading audience is never meant to know Dernhelm is Eowyn, Eowyn's hopelessness in the face of battle is divorced from her and expressed through Merry's POV, and Merry pities Dernhelm's despair and want for death. And finally, in the chapter "[The] Houses of Healing", a Eomer, Aragorn, and Gandalf have a prolonged conversation about Eowyn's depression and suicide, most of which is Gandalf clarifying the hopelessness of Eowyn. Death, she believed, was the only way of reclaiming some control and honor in her life.

This is where I think the advantage of the structure of _The Two Towers_ and _Return of the King_ works more in Eowyn’s favor. It takes the time to ease us into, not only Eowyn’s crisis, but the ferocity of her character. While the audience is still introduced to Wormtongue's sexual harassment of Eowyn through Eomer's point of view (as set up to his banishment from Edoras), most of Eowyn's story is presented _through her point of view_. We see Wormtongue's harassment of her firsthand, we _see_ both her reaction to it and her confront it with the rejection of his failed attempt to seduce her with his poisonous words. Both her despair and the ferocity of her character, are seen, and not through no one else's gaze but her own. The contradiction of her want to survive even as she wishes for death later on, and the road to her recovery also begins here instead of later in _Return of the King_ where it comes full circle.

Both TTT and _The Two Towers_ present the start of Eowyn's revival through her meeting with Aragorn and in both mediums, her depression rather takes a backseat to it. Eowyn's "love" for Aragorn is very much romantic instead of platonic. But, because she barely ranked above “minor character” in TTT (unlike the film), the description of Eowyn’s attraction to Aragorn comes off as a alarming (who is this weird chick staring at Aragorn like he owes her money?). In ROTK her desire to fight alongside him ("because they love thee") is so abrupt, so lacking in foundation, that it's baffling that Tolkien wants the reader to believe that his sway over her was strong enough to aggravate her suicidal tenancies. Especially to the point that she would throw herself at the first chance of death that presented itself to her. They barely interacted before then.

This is where the Aragorn/Eowyn dynamic works far better and builds more reasonably in the films. With the evacuation of Edoras and Meduseld to Helms Deep in _The Two Towers_ , Eowyn is kept in the center of the story, so is her relationship with Theoden (who, in another example of presenting her despair outside of her POV, provides the audience an illustration of her despair which began with the death of her family and his failure as a ruler). We get to see her and Aragorn interact beyond two moments in two books. We understand her attraction and what sparks her eagerness to be near him. When the time comes for Aragorn’s rejection of her feelings, the audience feels it alongside her and sees how it crushes her. Unlike ROTK, the scene in _Return of the King_ is explicitly about Eowyn's heartache, not how bad Aragorn feels about rejecting her (however plain it is to the audience), it ends with her watching him leave, and doesn't return to Aragorn's POV until Eowyn is literally not on-screen.

In both mediums Aragorn tells her she's in love with an idea of man, and he could never return her feelings (in ROTK, he's fairly self-pitying about not loving her when charged with healing in her in Minas Tirith). Tolkien (after the fact in an unpublished letter) makes a point of saying Eowyn misunderstood her platonic feelings for Aragorn as romantic love. But, given that Tolkien textually elaborates - for example - Eomer's "love" for Aragorn as very much a platonic love, Tolkien's declaration that Eowyn's love was always "platonic" and not "romantic" is utterly contradictory. The difference in how the text in TTT and ROTK represents the siblings love for Aragorn supports that much. Eowyn, really loved him in a romantic sense, was in love with more than the idea he represented for her. The problem, really, lies in the fact that there’s no real interaction between the two in TTT or ROTK to justify how strongly she does in the way the films manages to at least justify.

That said, I dislike the idea that Aragorn's rejection is what makes her decide to hang the rules and ride out to battle to satisfy her want for glory and death. Mostly because both of these desires are already established through events prior to her conversation with Aragorn: Her uncle's illness, the death of her cousin, her own slow, spiritual death in depression. She needed no secondary catalyst. But, Her decision, nonetheless, puts her concern for the safeguard of her home, in a particularly bad light. Who governed Edoras while she was fighting and then was gravely injured? Was she simply fortunate that the enemy was completely focused on destroying Gondor’s forces and ignored Rohan altogether? I think so.

_The Two Towers_ and _Return of the King_ does away with the "other people talking about Eowyn's depression" that happens in TTT and ROTK, because Eowyn is a supporting character with a stake in the plot, sometimes directly to her. Things that were talked about are seen squarely from her point of view, and its only a few times that others talk about the fragility of Eowyn's state of mind. _The Two Towers_ puts Eowyn's indirect declaration of love for Aragorn in Helm's Deep, making it both about her frustration of being not being allowed to fight, and trying to tell Aragorn how she feels without saying it explicitly. The conversation between them comes off more naturally as a result. And thinking about it how Eowyn's POV is so dominating in _Towers_ makes the removal of the sequence that would've shown how important it was for Eowyn to be in the caves, the first act of her being allowed to fight against her despair, all the more gutting.

Eowyn confronting Aragorn as he departs the camp in _Return of the King_ , free of exposition dump that was in ROTK, and focuses squarely on Eowyn's affections and heartbreak when Aragorn rejects her. When we return to her POV, Eowyn's despair, as she has succumbed to the idea that she'll be trapped by her toxic circumstances sans Wormtongue, is far more palpable. Eowyn's motivation to ride into battle is less about Aragorn's rejection and more about what she's potentially going to lose when everyone leaves her to rescue Gondor. Théoden’s emotional status isn’t too dissimilar from Eowyn’s, except he can be proactive about what's causing the problem (to a degree). He rides to Minas Tirith with no expectations to survive. The numbers his army faces pretty much drives him to embrace death. So the little moment in the Extended Edition of _Return of the King_ , where he comforts her and prays his final act will pave the way for her happiness, is almost in vain, because Eowyn decides she simply won’t concede to their wishes anymore. She’s going with them and in the process fulfills the wishes another companion, Merry Brandybuck.

**_Eowyn and “Dernhelm”_ **

In ROTK, Eowyn assumes the identity of “Dernhelm” and she’s treated no differently from the men surrounding her, but it’s not Eowyn who earns the respect of those who would be her peers (not until after the fact), but Dernhelm. Their ignorance makes them blind to the fact that it is in fact its Eowyn they’re talking to, so their prejudices aren’t something they can act on at all if they weren’t oblivious to who Dernhelm really was.

There's a lot about how Eowyn's story is framed that resembles the myth of Hervor, the shieldmaiden who learned how to fight as a child and later disguised herself as a man to fight. The big differences lay in the structure of their stories. Hervor's story is the traditional tale of a hero. Her dressing up as a man and adopting a masculine version of her name is a case of masculinity being valued over visible femininity and her knowing it. (Hervor apparently hated being called a "shieldmaiden" (???) and wanted to be recognized only as a viking, who delighted in raiding and fighting.)

Her story isn't focused on battling sexism, but her adventures to gain personal glory (confronting her undead father to get Tyrfing, the cursed sword, for example). She goes on to lead her own band of raiders. But, ultimately, her story ends with her growing bored of battle and getting married and having children (and somewhere down the line she ends up with a namesake who reveres her actions). The undercurrent that "woman as warrior" is the "barbarian" that needs to be "civilized" is still pretty present in her story, and the same can be said of Eowyn.

Eowyn's narrative is less about her achieving personal glory, but more hyper-focused on that she shouldn't want to fight. There's little else to her story, and her relationships (chiefly with Eomer, Aragorn, and Theoden) suffer as a result of this narrow focus. She struggles to participate in warfare, which is highly regarded in the culture of Rohan. Eowyn accepts that mindset like Hervor accepts that femininity isn't valued among warriors. There aren’t any other women with her position in his tale among Rohan’s armies or present in the story or the lore, and because of the overt sexism in her culture, she’s not allowed to embrace her identity as a warrior without hiding herself from her uncle and brother in male garb that successfully masks to her true identity.

For the most part _Return of the King_ does away with the fact that Merry is ignorant that Dernhelm is Eowyn (which is just a part of strengthening the bond the two form in the film). The film doesn’t even really bother with using name “Dernhelm” at all (it just gets used a lot in promotional material). At this point, the audience doesn’t need be jerked around with a “who’s that masked man?” mystery. We’re with Eowyn and Merry in their efforts. Everything Eowyn does is under her own name and as a result, Eowyn’s deeds aren’t lost in the translation of playing of game of _As You Like_. She and Merry are united by underestimation that stems from different, but ideologically similar reasons that others have used to bar them from fighting.

On the field of Pelennor, Eowyn's inexperience and naivety is are put on display. She fights on the battlefield, and she definitely gets defend her homeland as her brother and uncle do, but she gets rocked by the whole process. In _Return of the King_ she not only (barely) fends off Gothmog (who is far more violent embodiment of the male aggressor than Wormtongue is), but faces the Witch King of Angmar after watching Théoden, get brutalized by the Nazgul lord, and crushed by his own horse, Snowmane. In both mediums, Eowyn's self-image as a warrior, is shattered twice over by the Witch King who breaks her arm and her shield. Merry, wielding a magically imbued sword from the Barrow-Downs, breaks whatever power that protects the Witch King from certain "death" by mortal hands. He allows Eowyn to land what is considered the “killing” blow to the leader of the Nazgul with what she remains of her means of self-image and means of defense (her sword), which is also destroyed.  


_Return of the King_ allows Eowyn and Theoden's emotional arc to come to a conclusion with a mirror scene that verbalizes the entire reason she took up the sword and shield in the first place (to save her family). She simply collapses in ROTK and becomes a passive figure that's referred to a lot until "The Steward and the King" (I think). Eowyn, in the aftermath of ROTK, seems to give up on life following the death of her uncle, succumbing finally to her despair and depression in combination of being clobbered by the Witch King’s power. She is retrieved from the jaws of apparent death by Aragorn and Eomer, who she also believed died in her nightmares.

I think Eowyn loses a big part of herself after the battle of Pelennor, which is why she's so despondent afterward. I think she would've content with the loss if she had been allowed to die, or died on the battlefield. Oblivion was what she sought, but her own want to survive, the hope she starts to regain once she’s reunited with her brother, pushes her to keep fighting on. But now she still has to deal with her despair in the aftermath, and being left behind because she's too injured to continue in battle. Eowyn resigns herself to the fact that she never wins the affections of Aragorn, and while that might’ve been one part of her motivation to ride into battle, the payoff is that she’s remembered more for her heroic deeds than the person she hoped to love and the desire to become a queen at his side.

**_Eowyn and Characterization_ **

Eowyn, like Boromir, is a character that takes fades in and out of the story. She's not a major focus or interest for Tolkien, when compared to the other characters, and so, she takes some time to grow on you. She's a character you’re left filling in the blanks for because she's pretty unwritten and there's more unsaid about them than told in the text, even with the appendices taken into account. For all the great things said about the character, my initial impression of her, to articulate a little better than I did before, was that of a young woman who constantly chose the wrong time to voice her misgivings about her position as leader and caretaker in the place of Théoden while he and Eomer fought. It didn’t sit right with me that when she was given the task of safeguarding her people, she decided fighting and dying at Aragorn’s side (in a show of her love for him) was more important.

At the age of twenty four, Eowyn should’ve been, emotionally, at place where she probably shouldn’t have reacted as negatively as she wasn’t summoned to fight with the others. It felt like something more befitting someone who was teenager (sixteen, or younger), the type of character who usually got hit with sudden violence to shatter their romanticism or idealism of warfare. 

Though that seems to be what happens to her in ROTK. She decides, the warrior life isn't for her, and focuses on becoming a healer. (The ambiguity of _Return of the King_ allows me to believe she returned to Rohan and started training future shieldmaidens to protect home and country, don’t @ me.) And so, maybe there’s some irony in the fact that Tolkien doesn’t consider a twenty four year old Eowyn as someone who is remotely near “womanhood” (aka, adulthood) as it were.

I think that was why I had such a problem with removal Eowyn’s fight in the Glittering Caves in the Extended Edition of _The Two Towers_. It seemed like the right bit of closure for her character in that film, it completely changes the context of, not only her arguments for fighting, but her reunion with Aragorn after Eomer arrives with Gandalf (for the better), and the right kind of catalyst to drive her toward the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, makes her seem less eager to do more than just fight. But, I get why Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens wanted it gone.* I believe they thought it was redundant and that Eowyn would go through the same story arc not once, but twice. I don’t see it that way, but I also acknowledge that I didn’t live the moment.

**_Eowyn, Choice, and Marriage_ **

Aside from the general restructure of her storyline in _The Two Towers_ and _Return of the King_ verses how its handled in TTT and ROTK, is the outcome of Eowyn’s story, the end of it, really. One of the things Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens omit is Tolkien’s “hurry” to hook Eowyn up with Faramir and her transition from warrior-to-healer. I am, of course, aware that they did film a bunch of stuff between Miranda Otto and David Wenham from the book establishing the romance between the two characters; how she ends up with Finduilas' "starry mantle" cloak, and their marriage.

However, because of time constraints and narrative flow, what happens to Eowyn and Faramir’s relationship in _Return of the King_ is not only unnecessary, but not important to the overarching plot or the completion of either character’s respective story arcs. Anyone who read the book and is completely for the Farawyn relationship is always going to assume they’re together and married. But, even as someone who didn’t have the greatest time watching the film (Don't read source material before watching an adaptation, y'all), I never assumed the two of them were together purely because of the omission of everything I read in ROTK. The pure ambiguity of where they stood is less problematic for me than what Tolkien does in the book, because what I see onscreen doesn’t feel like its being forced upon me.

Aragorn/Arwen and Sam/Rosie are the two canon romances in LOTR that I’ve remained indifferent to because I don’t feel passionately about those characters the way I do for Eowyn. First and foremost, I always saw the Farawyn relationship as something utterly beneficial to Faramir and Faramir only. He's the only surviving member of his immediate family, he needs to marry, so Tolkien pairs him up with the only "major" female character in his narrative that isn't already married (Galadriel) or going to be (Arwen). It's a matter or proximity, and Eowyn simply had the marginal benefit of having more of a role in the story, unlike Arwen and Rosie.

How their relationship came to be for me – it always felt out of place, like an artificial conclusion for Eowyn’s arc and one that largely frustrated me at fifteen years of age, and only gets worse as I get older. For me, it’s always going to read like Tolkien – even when observing the patriarchal rules of his universe – is saying, “Alright, I let her fight, time to get her married”. It's like a version of Hervor's story where the authorial intent is clear like a pair of puppet strings reflected in light and talk of "its was her choice" feels even more disingenuous with the knowledge that Eowyn is, in fact, not a living person.

One of the major problems with Faramir/Eowyn as a relationship is that Faramir's attraction to Eowyn is intrinsically linked to her depression. He is awestruck by Eowyn's beauty expressly because how he picks up her on "sadness" through her "pale beauty" and pities her as a result (there is not a moment in "The Steward and the King" where Faramir doesn't link her beauty, the reason for his attraction, to her despair). Her sorrow, as expressed by features he finds comely, is "beautiful" to him and thus he pursues a "friendship" with her. His pity for Eowyn transforms into "love". Eowyn, preoccupied with being trapped in a circumstances she hoped to escape, unable to follow her brother and Aragorn into battle, isn't interested in being pitted by any man, let alone one who intends to romantically pursue her.

Eowyn's POV is rendered null in the chapter, further illustrating how the relationship is more to his Faramir's benefit than it ever was to Eowyn. Faramir uses secondhand information he learns from Merry and healers, and dictates to Eowyn that her depression about Aragorn is the _sole_ reason for her sadness, on the presumption that he knows her feelings better than she knows herself. This is further hammered home by Tolkien's continued insistence that Eowyn is truly ignorant of herself with the passage that "her heart changed, or else at last she understood it". Eowyn is never given the opportunity to rebuke or correct Faramir's assumptions about her state of mind, Eowyn's voice is silenced in favor of proving Faramir right. More importantly, Tolkien purports that all that's needed to recover from suicidal depression is a stranger's declaration of love and the acceptance of it.

Eowyn’s physical, emotional and mental recovery from the battle of Pelennor, should’ve been the focus of her story arc's end. Faramir courting Eowyn as she’s still trying to figure out what she’s going to do now that she won’t be immortalized in stories through death (like the other heroes of Rohan in tapestries of Meduseld), is not only damaging, but derails her storyline utterly in favor a male character. Tolkien doesn't take this consequence into consideration when establishing this romance, I don't think he much cared. Faramir's forwardness about his attraction to her always put me off. I know I’m not alone in thinking that because his letter addressing how he never pictured Eowyn like her alleged inspiration (Hervor), and then tries to justify the Farawyn relationship, clearly implies many people did as well and casual readers of LOTR I know always express complaint with how she ended up with him.

Farawyn shippers see it as two “damaged people” coming together and, you know, that’s fine. I absolutely don’t have a problem with that because it’s a valid interpretation of their relationship. I can even agree with their justifications about her transition from "warrior" to "healer" because within the context of the story, its peacetime and Eowyn decides to occupy a profession that's highly regarded within Gondor, where warrior women are probably even less revered or considered in Rohan. The problems usually arise when their defense for the ship spirals into pot-shots at others who happen to like Eowyn, but not her relationship with Faramir, or her switch from “warrior” to “healer”.

A comparison that's rarely brought up is how Tolkien makes Eowyn choose between being a healer and being a shieldmaiden. The argument (as I've demonstrated) has always been squarely focused on either defending her right to be a healer or her right to be a warrior. Eowyn stans are often gun-ho about defending "Eowyn the healer" (against those who have problems with it) on the notion that the only thing other Eowyn fans are interested in is "Eowyn Warrior Princess". It's rarely noted that Aragorn, both a warrior and a healer, is never made by Tolkien to choose with occupation to keep.

Aragorn gets to be both a healer and a warrior on top of being a King. But, Eowyn, who has demonstrated leadership skills and proficiency in fighting, must give up being a shieldmaiden to be a healer and later, Faramir's wife. It makes the quote "here comes the lord who tamed a wild shieldmaiden of the north" all the more icky in terms of how her arc deteriorated. Yet, it's out of turn for Tolkien's universe (where a woman can get lost in the woods, and be convinced to marry a man, the guy who enchanted the forest to keep her trapped.).

Inklings of this also appeared in _The Treason of Isengard_. Christopher Tolkien revealed that Eowyn was originally intended to be Aragorn’s romantic interest. Their eyes would meet during the chapter “King of the Golden Hall” and they would immediately fall into love and it would a mutual thing on both sides, with no need for Aragorn to convince her to be in a relationship with him. In addition to this relationship, Eowyn had Idis, her cousin and the daughter of King Théoden.

Originally, Eowyn’s story arc ended with her death in combat, which I believe happens to Hervor's namesake (Hervor II). Essayist Robin Anne Reid viewed her drafted fate as the Tolkien punishing Eowyn for stepping into a role designed for men, even if it is in keeping of how most mythical heroes died (tragically). While that may be true, the other role her death played was largely meant to service Aragorn’s story arc.

It was designed to simply to show that he loved her, so much so that he would never consider marriage after her passing. Following the creation of Arwen, her cousin Idis, her romantic arc with Aragorn and her death were discarded. The only surviving element is a [now] one-sided love for Aragorn and the ride into battle (sans death). The revision of Eowyn for the final version of TTT and ROTK feels less like an update to the character and more like a drawing that had details erased from it but are still clear on the page once someone points it out.

In a letter to his son, Michael, Tolkien (perhaps through omission), purports that women are naturally monogamous where men are not. And that women are inherently more content in and with the idea of marriage than men. The Letter, really, seems to be about addressing what his frustrations are regarding marriage fueled by idealistic romance (and indirectly, justifying infidelity as the consequence that stems from those unions). But, Reid’s resay, _Light (noun, 1) or Light (adjective, 14b)? Female Bodies and Femininities in The Lord of the Rings_ , suggests that her canon marriage to Faramir, or even her wish to marry Aragorn (the man she loved), was Tolkien saying married life, is Eowyn or any woman's natural end-state.

I didn't care for his justification in the unpublished letter #244 from 1963. He says he never envisioned Eowyn as a warrior, just someone suffering from crisis and was willing to pick up a sword. But, it's an after the fact statement that isn't reflected in the text of TTT or ROTK by any measure. As a writer, I understand it, but as someone who has very different understanding of Eowyn (and one I’ll admit is very much influenced by the impression of the films), it’s just where I don’t see eye-to-eye with Tolkien. If I had or have an ideal end for the character, it’s Eowyn reacquainting herself with hope, with no romantic entanglements, and returning to Rohan with Eomer and reconstructing her life from there once she's given the moment to grieve for her uncle. That's it, I think I would’ve been content with that because it would've been about Eowyn _only_.

But, for Tolkien, it seems that all that’s really needed for Eowyn to start a relationship with Faramir, are circumstances like Luthien and Beren. On some level, Eowyn's story does indeed reflect that of Hervor's, but she doesn't seem to get the same breathing room as Hervor before she's set up with Faramir. think that’s part of why I could accept the mere idea of a possible relationship between them in _Return of the King_. It’s just Faramir lending a shoulder to her, and the film ends with no clear conclusion about where they are. It feels more like two people getting to know each other still, and there's no stance on where Eowyn is, most especially not professionally.

**_Eowyn and the Reluctance of the Author_ **

Eowyn is often looked upon by her hardcore fans as a “feminist character”. The problem with that idea is that she was neither born as a reaction to sex or gender based discrimination (as experienced primarily by white women) or the lack of women in “High Fantasy”. There's still a lot about the character, most of Tolkien's women, really, that embodies what was expected of a woman (either in the period she represents of the period the books were published), particularly when concerned with marriage and children. I don’t think Tolkien was remotely interested in feminism and didn’t have the mindset for it.

I think even with the shortcomings of their author (his inability to write about female relationships, or place women in the narrative like his male characters), his female characters work to some degree because he just treats them like people. So far as I’m concerned, Eowyn works more than she fails as a character because she is the embodiment of Tolkien’s rebuttals or subversion of narrative descriptions from William Shakespeare’s _Macbeth_. The play on words (“[a man] born of no woman” / “no living man I am, you look upon a woman”) is his own interpretation of what he felt the audience had been denied (in the same sense the Ents are literally moving trees, where none did in the same play). And the allusion to Norse Mythology's Hervor (a cross-dressing woman masquerading as man) allows him to put his rebuttal into action through Eowyn. The arguments she has with Aragorn about her right to fight as a women act like a lampshade of the period of those tales (to repeat myself yet again). And to that end, I think that’s why a lot of folk are content with the abruptness in her arc. She got her chance to fight, so the shift from warrior, and the declaration in so short a time that becoming a healer is what she wants be, isn’t horrible.

There is a lot about Eowyn that feels like a dry run of something Tolkien ended up doing much better with Lúthien Tinúviel in _Beren and Luthien_ (but again, I don't know if LOTR came before B/L). Tolkien’s lack of interest the shieldmaiden myth and use of the word merely to describe Eowyn’s fighting ability is whack in my opinion. Her marriage to Faramir feels doesn't feel like a natural conclusion to her story. The overall lack of face time Eowyn gets in TTT and ROTK leaves a lot about her character up to the reader to fill in the blanks and make assumptions about her. But, again, barring the Hobbits, you can say this of almost every Tolkien character in the three book series.

I can see why, following the advent of _The Two Towers_ , and _Return of the King_ , Eowyn was a popular character among young women within my age group, esp. with the memory of shows like _Xena: Warrior Princess_ (which had ended the summer before the theatrical debut of _The Fellowship of the Ring_ ) still lingering. Beforehand, I can only speculate that reader-only audiences were simply glad to see a _human_ woman at the “front” in Tolkien’s work, even if there were likely better alternatives, written by women, to turn to.

Eowyn’s not a terrible character, and of the female characters present in the story, she’ll always be my favorite. (And as with Boromir, I definitely adore her character arc in the films far more.) But, I’m not in love with the structure of her story anymore, mostly because I feel I’ve grown past it while it remains stuck in the past and it rather represents the damable loop that female characters can't get out of with regard to high fantasy fiction (having to prove the necessity of their existence).

The limitations or limited scope of her creator are probably more apparent in her storyline (and in Arwen’s) than Boromir’s, who is only slightly more “fleshed out” through Tolkien’s ‘telling” verses “showing” (if only by virtue that he is a male character). I’m probably less forgiving of that the older I get. I’m rather frustrated that neither Eowyn nor Arwen have the same popularity within the Alternate Universe subgenre of LOTR fic like Boromir does. There are a lot of different things you could do with their characters, but the general contentedness with their respective canon storyline from fandom disagrees.

_______________________________________

***NOTES I:** The majority of women in Tolkien's lore weren’t military figures or warriors. They weren’t even allowed status like, say, Glorfindel or King Earnur. Tolkien more or less implies, some know how to use swords, but aren’t real warriors. A lot of the women with any kind of major physical prowess were usually demi-gods, gods, or elves. Individuals capable of pure creation, manipulation of the world (but are bound to Eru’s control), magic, and long life. They’re observers, basically. Barring Galadriel (who wielded a Ring of Power), a lot of the aforementioned women are only named in passing. 

His narratives always gave me the impression he did not agree with the idea of women as soldiers. Women were only allowed to fight as a last defense when too many men had died and there was no one to replenish any given army. Women fighting in his universe was not the norm, and the backhanded compliment around them was usually “despite being a maid” (their disadvantage) – “you fight as well as any man” (the compliment). The adventures of these (presumed) warrior women were typically just left behind to be referenced in content he never finished before his death two years after his wife’s passing (a bummer).

***NOTES II:** Re-listening to the audio commentary for the Extended Edition of _The Two Towers_ (particularly the post production and design team) rather reveals that a lot of content exiled from the film regarding Eowyn's story was bound up with Arwen's arrival in Helm's Deep. (Even though I'm content with Arwen's story in TTT/ROTK, there's still a big part of me that's still mad I never got it and won't see it). Apparently, from their fragmented recollections, Eowyn and Arwen were going to be doing _a lot_ interacting with each other (which explains Liv Tyler's elation to hang out with Miranda Otto when they were prepping her for the Helms Deep sequences).

Near the end of the film, the post-production team reveals that Eowyn would've been dealing with helping a pregnant woman give birth in the midst of the Uruk-hai breaking into the Hornburg as Theoden and co. prepare their charge. Understandably, they thought it was a bit on the nose and removed it. The picture that continues to circulate to this day of Eowyn pressed up against a wall in the glittering cave as a Uruk comes creeping around the corner, is the likely aftermath of the birth. Protecting the women and children from the ridiculous number of Uruk-hai entering the cave is why she's fighting in the first place.


	4. Chapter 003: How Fandom Sees Borowyn

Within the miniature spectrum that is the Borowyn shipdom, there is no true variety with regard to how their relationship can come to be on a speculative level. Arguably, there’s no real discussion about them as a ship or as a dynamic, because where the fandom assumes Boromir would be familiar (friendly, even) with the likes of Eomer, Théoden, and Theodred, Eowyn is somehow invisible and generally ignored by him. Given the proximity of he would have to her family members, Eowyn would most likely be present whenever he was around. As a rarepair, I guess and know that’s rather expected within the territory.

The fact that they don’t interact in canon at all rather makes it, I guess, difficult to imagine a friendship between them. Or just not a subject worth exploring. Boromir is, after all, dead when Eowyn briefly enters the narrative of TTT, and Eowyn never makes any remote mention of him in the least. Eomer and Theoden are the only ones who really seem to know him personally. So, in terms of platonic shipping (BROTP) from canon, there’s really nothing to be had. Yet, this hardly prohibits fandom from imagining a (smut) relationship between Theodred and Boromir, two characters who also don't interact with each other (arguably don't know each other) and are both dead by TTT (their only relative connections are Theoden and Eomer). The prevailing thought among Borowyn shippers come and gone is that neither Eowyn nor Boromir would know each other, or even like each other. This, more often than not, is a clear reflection of the author initially never considering they could be a viable pairing, or interact with each other.  


Most authors who’ve attempted to write multi-chapter Borowyn stories, before the endeavor is abandoned, have often favored to write Borowyn through the lens of the Arranged Marriage trope. And, under the pretense that the two are strangers to each other, the Arranged Marriage narrative throws the unwilling Boromir and Eowyn together, often with the intention of establishing a romance when Eowyn is basically a teenager, wholly against losing her agency, and too young for marriage or a relationship with an older man (typically in his late 30s).

Within the Arranged Marriage trope, Boromir and Eowyn’s characterization is often contentious. Neither is either usually understanding or submissive toward their circumstances (maybe Boromir gets it better than Eowyn does, because of age and life-experience). Eowyn, naturally, doesn’t want be married to an old man she doesn’t know. Understandably, she makes particularly negative assumptions about Boromir’s character, sometimes going as far as vowing to loathe Boromir and look to escape their arrangement by running away as she assumes this is just another facet of a caged lifestyle she rejects.

Boromir wallows in self-pity about the loss of his bachelorhood to a girl in her teens, but is sometimes remorseful that either of them is in the position at all. If Eowyn’s temperament is perhaps more akin to her final moment with Théoden in _Return of the King_ (Extended Edition), morose and hopeless, then mayhap Boromir will attempt to be more diplomatic about their situation but is all the same resigned to his "duty" to carry on the bloodline of the Stewards. (Some of these stories have a weird hyper-focus on calling Eowyn a "breeder", directly or indirectly, and its unsettling.)

Arranged Marriage stories are not my favorite, not lately, anyway. I think its fast-tracking conflict between strangers without earning it, And on some level, for me, the trope (as I've seen it in other fics) usually has the male character acting at his worse, unnecessarily so, just so the female character putting up with it can make pithy comebacks, and it becomes an obstacle to buying a potential love story. That said, most of the Arranged Marriage stories for Boromir and Eowyn were quite clearly set up to be slow burns, but the authors rather burned themselves out of the whole ordeal or fell out of love with LOTR (it happens). Because the Arranged Marriage story was the only kind of multi-chapter story Borowyn fans were interested in telling at the time (from 2002-to-2010 give or take), my general impression of fandom’s take of their romantic relationship's beginning isn’t a particularly healthy one.

I can see the potential in a story wherein two people who dislike each other for pure surface reasons can eventually get to know each other better and maybe eventually fall in love, but not through said trope. (I also ultimately prefer that Eowyn be canonically 24 or older when she starts romancing Boromir.) The problem, of course, is no one has actually seen the Arranged Marriage or multi-chapter storyline through with Eowyn and Boromir. Heck, I don’t think I’ve ever happened across a lengthy multi-chapter Eowyn/Aragorn story if I’m being honest (but, maybe I need to go to an old geocities LOTR website for that).

Outside the Arranged Marriage trope, Eowyn and Boromir are either cordial acquaintances (a rarity), or, in general don’t get along when they meet (common). Eowyn resents what is often a one-note version of Boromir; overly proud, sexist, and dismissive of her or her feelings because she’s a woman. A lot of this formula is taken from romantic period dramas, specifically Jane Austen’s _Pride and Prejudice_ , or rather its many adaptations. On some level, Borowyn shippers appear to be saying Boromir is the archetypal Byronic hero in the vein of Fitzwilliam Darcy or Edward Rochester ( _Jeyne Eyre_ ) and Eowyn is Elizabeth Bennett and Jane Eyre, which I don’t agree with.

Other times, rarely, really, Eowyn’s perceived resentment of Boromir is a kind of overwhelming shame that she’s even remotely attracted to Boromir, who may be oblivious to her silent affections and regard her with no sort of special treatment until she lets it slip. Alternatively, she may simply find him attractive, but never act on her inclination toward him, and Boromir remains ignorant of her affections and leaves to for Rivendell.

Sometimes Eowyn will befriend Faramir in alternate circumstances (before or after the War of the Ring), as a way to hint to her canon relationship with him. Borowyn is sometimes purposefully set up to lead into Faramir/Eowyn (a lot of these have been popping up lately and that’s annoying as someone looking for new content). The circumstances above may or may not change upon their meeting. Either way, Eowyn’s unhappiness with Boromir is often the catalyst to their romance and the narrative trajectory would (presumably) be to get her to change her position about Boromir to the point wherein she falls in love with him.

Smut fics often maintain that the two don’t know each other (well) and to that end, are not exactly engaging (for me), because there’s no emotional connection or satisfaction to be had at all. Eowyn is often the instigator of their sexual encounters. She’s either a virgin, or someone who’s had sexual partners before Boromir. Most of the time the scenarios simply are set up with Eowyn wanting to sleep with someone far older than her for the sake of his sexual experience, or intentionally trying to get herself pregnant because Historical Accuracy™ is expected of her. that I don’t think Rohan rolls like that, though, based purely on omission of the fact.

Within the shipdom of Borowyn, there is so much focus on the two of them being strangers, not knowing each other, hating each other, that, in the here and now, it kinda just leaves me despondent. It would really just be a breath of fresh air to encounter a story (more often) where they were just close-knit friends, and maybe friends who'd experience a friends-to-lovers arc.

____________________________________

_**Canon shippers vs. Eowyn rarepair shippers** _

The debut of _The Two Towers_ and _Return of the King_ and the aftermath of home media content that came out for both, saw the LOTR movie fandom effectively having to deal with book canon gatekeepers (or folk within that said group) that were quite content to pounce on folk who so much as deviated from Tolkien’s ideas for their own interpretations of his text. Didn’t matter if it was Aragorn/Boromir, Eowyn/Arwen, or Aragorn/Eowyn, they often didn’t take too kindly too it and wrote literal essays about “why Eowyn belongs with Faramir and not Aragorn”, or "Why Arwen is the love of Aragorn's life and not Eowyn".

Aragorn/Eowyn fans were hounded (for lack of a better term) by Arwen/Aragorn (and vice versa, because there were plenty of anti-Arwen folk flaunting about), and Eowyn/Faramir shippers (who usually came to blows with Eowyn fans who weren't gun-ho about F/E), but it was a "ship war" that I was largely observational of. I didn't have a LiveJournal account circa 2001-2006, and, in general, never really felt comfortable talking about LOTR with other fans because of their combative nature most of the time.

It was blasphemy to imagine Eowyn could be with anyone but Faramir (and I’ve rarely seen the alternative where Eowyn simply doesn’t romance anyone outside maybe one story, but there’s love triangle nonsense in that), and the constant need to remind folk, who shipped Eowyn with anyone else, who she ends up with was the thing to do within the LOTR fandom.

Unlike Eowyn/Aragorn, Borowyn's detractors are a passive bunch, most of the time, because of the rarity of the ship and the lack of fandom activity. The reaction to it is either disinterest or bafflement because it’s “not canon” (and this is where mine dislike for Tolkien purists tends to be the strongest). I think one of the big problems with this ship (that isn’t a lack of interest or the eventual loss of passion for it) is the almost cloak-and-dagger function it seemed to operate on because of that canon shipper mentality. Then there's the fact that Folk started shipping them at different periods of time, and it's almost always a case of fans passing each other like ships in the night in search of scarce content.

In terms of discussion for viable ships for Eowyn, rarepairs were, and probably still are, landmine territory where arguments happened and justifications occurred. The aforementioned disinterest or bafflement toward Borowyn as potential romantic relationship was usually because it was probably one of the more “absurd” pairings after Gimli/Eowyn or Legolas/Eowyn. The thing the three characters have in common is that they don't interact with Eowyn on any meaningful level or at all. I guess the question from Farawyn or Arwen/Aragorn shippers was, "where do you get off liking a ship where two characters don't interact, but have the gall to dislike the canon ships with interaction?" or something to that nature (lmao).

_**The Issue of Age Difference** _

The subject of Boromir and the age difference in his potential ships is an interesting one. Where a problem lies with one character, it’s not an issue with another. Among his more popular fanon relationships – Boromir (40-41) is forty-six years Aragorn’s (87) junior, and there is no real argument with the nature of their relationship largely because of Boromir’s age and the fact that he’s a man (Sean Bean is also only a year younger than Viggo Mortensen). Boromir and Theodred are the same age (both were born the same year), so there’s no question about the validity of that ship with regard to age. 

Eowyn (23-24), on the other hand, is a young woman and is sixty three years Aragorn’s junior. Some, who aren’t purely objecting because it’s not Faramir, are understandably put at ill ease at the idea of Aragorn (who Tolkien ultimately decided not to pair with Eowyn because he was too old) romancing someone who is effectively nowhere near the gulf of his life experience and young enough to be his granddaughter. This, of course, rather fails to come across on film when your actress is 32 (at the time of filming) playing at 24 and your lead actor is only 41 pretending to be 87.

Eomer, at 28 years, is only twelve years a 40 year old Boromir’s junior, but there’s almost no argument or ill-feeling against this particular pairing and I’m going to assume it’s largely because Eomer is a male character. Within the spectrum of her relationship with Faramir (35 years old), Eowyn is eleven years his junior, yet there's little to no argument or objection toward their relationship in that sense. However, when the rarity of pairing Eowyn with Boromir is brought up, its often brought to the forefront that Eowyn is sixteen years Boromir’s junior. For some, mostly Farawyn shippers, this, like Aragorn’s age, almost always put them at ill ease, and enough so to make comment about it in fanfiction.

It’s definitely an understandable, if not contradictory, argument. As mentioned, I’ve seen used in Boromance fics that intend to pair Eowyn with Faramir (usually). It wasn’t something I acknowledged at 16-17 years old (most of my superficial attractions were toward older men, and I didn’t have the critical process I do now to recognize problems that can arise in a legit relationship with that skewed an age difference). It wasn’t something that bothered me at 22, but it is something that I’m a far more mindful of now approaching 30 at the time of this rewrite.

I can’t blame anyone for not wanting to ship them on that pretense, it’s a fair argument. But, the problem with taking that argument is to ignore the fact that literally every man in Tolkien’s canon, _including Faramir_ , is too old for a 24 year old Eowyn if the objection primarily stems from the fact that Boromir is ten (plus six) years older than she is. With the exception of Merry*, going downward, the age gaps between the supporting and lead or supporting male characters (Faramir, Boromir, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas) typically paired off with Eowyn in rarepairs only get larger. (esp. if you wander in the tiny box of Eowyn/Glorfindel and Eowyn/Tar-Miriel)

It's not as egregious or skewered as GRUM's particularly unhealthy bent on F/M relationships (child/adult), but it does highlight the uneven dynamics in Tolkien’s world building with regard to age discrepancies. It’s almost always in favor of the older men and not the younger women, and older women are almost never present in his stories unless they’re youthful immortals with no sign of wrinkles. Ioreth’s kind’ve the only elderly human woman in his story, and she only shows up briefly in ROTK and is apparently without a significant other or husband.

Lúthien and Arwen seem to be the only real exceptions. They’re immortal (with the choice of becoming mortal), and have lived longer than their male lovers, but they're also young women in comparison to their parental figures. Tolkien seems to treat their gigantic age difference as s a non-issue because they’re supernatural characters. They’re beyond the realm of normal concerns of age, thus their exempt from the argument and their companions are much further into adulthood than most canon pairs.

But, with his human characters, the only time he seems to draw attention to the age gap this is with Númenorean men, who married late because... reasons. Aragorn’s mother (Gilraen), and Finduilas, are two major examples. He makes a point of noting that Denethor "married late" at 46 years-old to Finduilas, who was 26 year-old. Gilraen’s father apparently objected to the idea of a 56-year old Arathorn marrying his 22 year old daughter, but her mother made sure she was eventually married to Arathorn because of political assurances that their bloodline survived (basically, she had a vision about their union). If you believe the LOTR Wiki, which assigns Elfhild with the birth date of T.A. 2950 (they don't cite where the information comes from, however), then she was only Theoden's junior by two years, making them one of the least distanced human couples in Tolkien's legendarium (that I know of). If you believe the LOTR Wiki, of course.

So, to that end, having Boromir do a lampshade in your story and go “Eowyn’s half my age, I wouldn’t dream of perusing her”, as you prepare to romance her with other men far older than her is, is all well and good - it's pointing out that there's huge age gap between them. But, it is a case of throwing stones at other people's glass houses.

_**"Eowyn and Boromir just don't work..."** _

So, to reiterate, Borowyn is a rarepair ship with little to no fandom base, and content is or was produced sporadically following the release of the films. On the subject of their "what if?" relationship, the isolated LOTR forums that were once the place to go to talk about the books (and bemoan the films) and the occasional rogue anon review or story on FFNet, occasionally made arguments as to why they wouldn't work as a couple. The core argument from detractors about why the Borowyn relationship would not work was usually because Boromir and Eowyn were either "too alike" or "too unalike". Personally, I don't think Eowyn and Boromir are that much alike, and their similarities have more to do with how they suffer in the narrative. Eowyn, canonically, shares no similarities with Faramir besides being the younger sibling of a sibling dynamic. Tolkien believed they would get on fine and defended his choice to pair them up against fans who weren't crazy about the pairing, or folk who weren't crazy about Faramir as a character.

The secondary argument against the relationship, is that Boromir would prefer a woman he could baby and dote upon, suggesting he wouldn’t be interested in a woman who would be anything other than completely submissive to him. Eowyn, by their estimate, is simply too strong-willed and too headstrong for someone like Boromir. They believed Boromir would want to do things his way, while Eowyn would want to do things her way and there was no middle ground in that medium. Thus, no peace would be achieved between them and their romance would quickly sour.

The third, and more barmy argument was from one thread I remember seeing on the less than stellar forums of the OneRingDotNet. The supposition of the forum users discussing Eowyn's introduction in "The King of the Golden Hall", believed the only way Tolkien would've paired Eowyn together with Boromir, is if she was a 12 year old child, because that was "realistic”. Nevermind historians have thoroughly debunked that “every girl in ye olden times was a child-bride” nonsense*, and none of Tolkien’s male or female characters married children to the best of my very recent recollection of his works. I remember being taken aback with anger when I read that thread. I had to wonder, what kind of character did folk think Boromir was, exactly?

With regard to discussion about Boromir as a romantic partner, the execution is more miss than hit? There's a lot about how Boromir is written in romantic LOTR fanfic that tends to make him a walking embodiment of toxic masculinity with the underpinnings of deep seated hatred toward women. This often places the responsibility of fixing his sexism on his romantic interest. In these stories, he can’t handle a woman talking back to him; he can’t deal with a woman beating him in a fight. He can’t deal with women period. Then there's the practice of making Boromir an overly-aggressive character through the exaggeration of his stubborn or negative qualities.

Boromir does not strike me as a character who’d want to marry a woman simply to subjugate, and worse, infantilize her. He also doesn't strike me as alone someone who’d agree to marry a child. This is a particularly odd and mystifying Boromir headcanon in the LOTR fandom. Especially, from my observation, when you consider that Tolkien never seemed to marry of his human female characters to older men unless they were in their early-to-mid twenties. A woman who can help herself, who is an individual all her own and would be his equal seems like that the most basic qualities he’d look for in a person.

Tolkien more or less gives the impression that Boromir was free to marry whoever he wanted, that political arrangements weren’t something he was required to observe given he decided to "take no wife" and Denethor seemed to have no argument with that (that Tolkien thought to mention). The idea of Boromir being preoccupied with naught but combat and warfare as one King Earnur did without the context of his circumstance (as one explanation), seems to ignore the fact that this might’ve never been his mindset were he not literally shouldering the responsibilities of saving Gondor “single-handedly” as per his father’s expectations.

With regard to Eowyn, writers who set her up in alternate scenarios with either Aragorn or Faramir usually don't do too terribly with her. The worst I can say I've seen is that she maybe she's too mushy when the obstacle of her despair and the War of the Ring aren't things the writer can fall back on in the narrative. That, or there's far too much focus on the "breeding" thing that pops up in so many Eowyn romances. The grand majority who absolutely do not want to see her with anyone else but Faramir in fandom works, often cite that Faramir works for her because of his understanding and sympathetic nature. That they met at the right place and at the right time for their relationship to come to be at all. For lack of a better word, his passivity in comparison to Eowyn’s straightforwardness and headstrong nature is something Eowyn needed to “rein her in”, or “tame her”.

The lack of any reference to Eowyn, or any other female character in Tolkien's legendarium, being required to marry at a certain age, or being trapped in arranged marriages, also leads me to believe that she didn't have to deal with that issue unless it was on her own terms. (I can recall a few women were manipulated into marriage by creepers, but arranged into marriages, not so much.) By and large, Tolkien's central obstacle or conflict in romance always seemed to be the father. Whether or not he would grant the lover permission to marry his beau, and whether or not the male character could prove he was worthy enough for the daughter's hand in marriage while the female character kind've just waited for him to achieve his task, unless her name was Luthien. The one time I remember hearing about an arranged marriage in explicit terms is when the Dunlendings approached Helm Hammerhand about uniting their people, and their leader (Freca) was murdered for that.

Anywho, the general gist is that Boromir and Eowyn would clash far too much because they are too similar to each other. But, for me, I think that kind of thinking falls back on the “characters defined by a single trait” mentality that fandom reduces so many established characters to (“All Eowyn wanted was glory” / “Boromir was evil”). I don't think they share that many similarities, and the narrative similarities they do share were exactly why I believed they would work as a couple.

_______________________________________

***NOTES I:** My Hobbit knowledge is rusty, but if I recall, Hobbits are considered "young adults", but not full-fledged adults when they hit their 30s. And Their 50s are considered "middle-aged".

***NOTES II:** From my understanding of what I've researched, historians state that marriage for young women was typically common by 20 years. The exception, but not the rule, was apparently seventeen (the Duchess Georgiana Cavendish, was married at seventeen in the 1700s, for example). Though they say it was usually no lower, they also acknowledge this rule always had exceptions.


	5. Chapter 004: Why Boromir and Eowyn

**THE CATALYST:** I was tired of reading Boromir/OFC fanfiction. The standard fare of Boromance stories is YMMV in general. Most of them, as I’ve experienced from teenage youth to adulthood, are quite alright to forgettable. The other half were 10th walker and "Falls into Middle Earth" fics (no disrespect to anyone who enjoys them, but I was not really interested in reading meta fiction starring Susan and Becky romancing the Fellowship). Most of the original female characters in Boromances tend to fit the model of “I’m not like the other girls” (hello, Internalized misogyny) and Boromir, more often than not, tends to be characterized as such as jerkwad, I end up reexamining my like for him. 

Did that mean I found a promised land with fics pairing Boromir with canon characters? Absolutely not, that was usually reserved for gen and non romantic fics. I can count on one hand the number of Boromir/OFC stories I’ve enjoyed and gone back to. But, at the time I started shipping Borowyn, I was at the point where I was no longer emotionally invested in hoping to find any more Boromir/OFC stories that didn’t fall into the cons I mentioned.

**SECONDARY REASON:** **THE PLATONIC ANGLE**

On a textual level, Boromir feels the most disconnected from the surviving characters in LOTR. If you removed him from the plot, not much would change, and there are myriad of ways Frodo could end up leaving the Fellowship without Boromir being driven mad by the Ring. 

A lot about his relationships outside the Fellowship are made in passing mentions, but they’re the ones that intrigue me the most. We’re told about them, but we never see them in action. Tolkien tells us that his relationship with Faramir is neigh unbreakable, we’re told about his loyalty to Denethor, but we never see it. And more importantly, we’re told about his relationship with Rohan and just how similar he is to the peoples of Rohan verses Gondor, but, again, we never see it.

Boromir’s "seldom visits" to Rohan is a rather unexplored bit of the character’s background that I always found interesting. Perhaps more interesting than the angst he was waylaid with in Gondor dealing with Mordor, Faramir and Denethor, because he's absolutely disconnected from all of that.

On the other hand, the lives of Eomer and Eowyn prior to the events of TTT were also a point of interest for me, but I could never find a story just about the two of them, largely because of fandom’s preoccupation with Grima Wormtongue’s harassment toward Eowyn, and, well, no real interest in her relationship with Eomer when it wasn’t concerned with incest. There weren’t (and still aren’t) really any familial stories about the Rohan siblings with their parents Théodwyn and Eomund like there is for Boromir, Faramir and Finduilas... or Denethor.

So, spurred on by the desert within fandom that was Rohan, my imagination, preoccupied with both the romantic and platonic prospects of Eowyn and Boromir’s dynamic, started building its own sandcastles. Eomer’s reverence for Boromir as displayed throughout TTT is what I believe was reverence for a friend lost, not admiration for someone he barely knew (even if that's canon).

And it was to that end, I imagined, despite their respective hardships, Rohan was Boromir’s place of reprieve, his home away from home if it wasn't there on business. Boromir, so far as I’m concerned, did a lot of coming and going from Gondor to Rohan when the opportunity presented itself, and I believe he created something he could truly call his own, something he wouldn’t have to share with his father, brother or his home. He became friends with Theodred and Idis (Théoden’s daughter), who were both closer to his age (I like to think Idis is a year older than both), and through that friendship he met Eowyn and Eomer.

Eomer and Eowyn, of course, are on a different plain of existence verses Boromir, Idis, and Theodred. They're kids, Boromir and co. are young adults approaching or in their twenties, already leaving their childhood behind for the adult world. But, neither Boromir, Idis, or Theodred belittle Eowyn and Eomer because they’re children. They’ll tease, of course, but for the most part, they’ll entertain their shadowing and questions with as much patience a young adult preoccupied with themselves can provide.

The idea of Eowyn and Boromir’s particular friendship starting from her childhood and lasting into her adulthood came from the belief that Eowyn, was not quite over the passing of her parents. When she's not with Idis (who I think she'd be closest to after Eomer without Theoden and Theodred as her only modes of interaction), she’s brusque, spends all her time in her head, and imagines stories of adventure if she’s not play fighting with Eomer.

Boromir, a stranger in her day-to-day life, is someone to distract herself with, and a swordsman from another land like one of her adventures. And because of his relationship with Faramir, Boromir might oblige her curiosity about Gondor, and not dismiss her because she’s younger than he is. So, in a way, on top of her relationship with Idis (who in my headcanon was fostered to Dol Amroth and came back around the time Eowyn and Eomer arrived in Edoras), her grieving process is halved between two attentive people with more of a broader connection to Gondor and Rohan, and she becomes a little more proactive within her own family because she's not always in her head.

So, once Eowyn reaches young adulthood and adulthood proper, Boromir’s continued visits to Rohan strengthen a friendship between him, herself and her brother, that was no longer a balance between remembering that they were kids, and may not understand everything he or Theodred talk about. They could actually function as complete friends now that they were somewhat on a level playing field. So, that’s one part of the appeal of their potential friendship for me.

The other part of Eowyn and Boromir’s platonic appeal is the exploration of the character Idis, the character was scrapped by Tolkien during his rewrites of TTT. Idis not only gave me the chance to explore a completely feminine relationship with Eowyn (a woman who was unlike Eowyn in the sense she had no desire for battle or swords, but was a Princess in every sense of the word, minus the shrill vilification). It also allowed me fool around with a “canon” character that Boromir could become romantically entangled with (I was not interested in creating a OFC, though Idis is basically just another shade of Eowyn), but would also consider a close friend like Theodred or Eomer if I never acted on that inclination.

  **PRIMARY REASON: THE ROMANTIC ANGLE**

I was not a big romantic reader when I was into LOTR. I read about four subjects: stories about Frodo not leaving Middle Earth for the undying lands, stories about Frodo's relationship with Merry and Pippin, Boromir's relationship with Faramir, and Boromir not dying. So when I did venture into romantic stories - usually centered around Boromir - Eowyn as a romantic partner was extremely different for me. Because I never considered it, but a few people did, it was like finding a new section in the library.

Aside from reading the 2005 fanfic by Rosa Cotton as a teenager, digging the idea of a romantic relationship between Boromir and Eowyn stemmed from my desire for Eowyn to be in a relationship where she grew to know someone over an extended period of time; years, preferably. And on that level I could see why folk were drawn to Eowyn/Aragorn in _The Two Towers_ and _Return of the King_ verses Faramir/Eowyn. It was a case of seeing or watching a relationship develop, even if the end result didn't work out in the romantic sense, but platonic.

I don’t see either Eowyn or Boromir becoming romantically involved, either with each other or anyone else, unless they know each other from the inside-out. Otherwise, it’s just sexual tension and physical attraction that will clearly trumped by Aragorn and Faramir’s, I guess, general proximity to Eowyn within the established canon. For me, they had to have to known each other so well that spontaneous flirting, or casual conversation as he might have with Eomer or Theodred, wouldn’t be out of the question for either of them.

The general lack of exploration into either their platonic or romantic relationship was additionally a huge motivator for me even writing for the ship, because I usually just shrug my shoulders and move on. But because there wasn’t enough for me to chew on, I started writing.

On a whole, I think I have watching the adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s _Sharpe_ and reading the original book series, to thank for keeping my interest in LOTR afloat for more than a year while I was writing _Sweet Disposition_. Which isn’t to say that I, at 22, was saying that Sharpe and Boromir was the same guy, they’re absolutely not. 

But, at the time, _Sharpe_ ’s relationships with women like Teresa Moreno (a Spanish Guerrilla) and Lucille Castineau (a French Noblewoman IIRC), were the kind of relationships I believed Boromir could end up in, or at the very least, the two women embodied the kind of women he’d be attracted to. And on one level Eowyn embodied a little of both (a fighter and someone who’s kinder than she usually permits herself to be, if only out of self-preservation).

So, yeah, I don’t believe their relationship would be without complication. I agree, even as someone views them as life-long friends (for as long as Eowyn is old enough to comprehend the concept), the start wouldn’t be an easy one, and there’d be the usual hesitation before one of them would decide to be forward with their affections and confess their love to each other. But, I’m not under the impression that Arranged Marriage would be the way they’d come together proper.

So, here at the end of this extended and re-written “Manifesto” (which probably breaks a few rules, but whatever, ship_manifesto isn’t really a necessary thing anymore), I’m perhaps a little less enthusiastic about describing why I was so attracted to Boromir and Eowyn as a dynamic (but with regards to fandom, I’m less enthusiastic and isolationist about expressing most things I like to strangers), but I’m no less attached to them in a lot of ways.

There are a fair number of human characters in LOTR that I like, but I think Eowyn and Boromir top the metaphorical list I’ll never write as my absolute favorites. I mourn the fact that there isn’t more content about them together, either as friends or lovers, but I am glad for what’s out there for the most part. 

I also think the rarepair ship was hugely instrumental in mine embracing the sappier side of myself, just losing myself in the idea of romance after being against for so long once I figured it out what I didn’t like about it.


	6. Chapter 005: Boromir and Eowyn Directory

Originally, this list was meant to reflect stories I’d recommend to curious readers of the Borowyn ship, but, I think it’s been long enough where I don’t think making a straight up directory of everything I’ve ever found for the ship is out of the question in the year of our lord 2018. I don’t think the list is gonna get any bigger.

Obviously, the most single Borowyn stories available for your reading pleasure are by Rosa Cotton (they’ve written eight of them). The others I’d recommend are by an author named Morgyn Leri, who wrote a series about Eowyn leaving Rohan to marry Boromir at nineteen and having at least one son with him before the War of the Ring and raising him afterward. 

There are at least ten stories in their series, which focuses on Eowyn’s life in Gondor and her relationships with other women. The rest are a series of disconnected stories (and one that was deleted) by different authors on Fanfiction.Net, and then there’s mine, _Sweet Disposition_ (I’m still quite proud I knocked out a 100 semi-drabbles for that one).

 In addition, there was a LiveJournal community I had created back in 2010 called [boromir_eowyn](https://boromir-eowyn.dreamwidth.org) and attempted to keep updated enough to draw some kind of attention as I promoted, but rarepair hell being what it was (the LOTR fandom being what it is), I deleted it when I had to make the decision of saving or letting go of what was left of my account on LiveJournal before finally deleting that. Out of morbid curiosity, I re-created it Dreamwidth this month (February), but I don’t expect anything of it now. I just wanted to know if I could.

##  **\- ROSA COTTON FICS**

> _[Home](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2568262/1/Home) _ | **K** | **One Shot**  |  **Publish Date:** September 5, 2005  
>  **Summary:**   _Boromir returns to his wife and child after a long absence._
> 
> _To Hate, to Love_ | **K** | **One Shot** | [ **[FFNET](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2571901/1/To-Hate-to-Love) | [AO3](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1371523)** ] | **Publish Date:** September 8, 2005  
>  **Summary:**   _When Boromir irritates Eowyn she, in her anger, reveals something unexpected. Movieverse, AU_.
> 
> _Torment Waking or Sleeping_ | **K** | **One Shot** | **[[FFNET](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3249763/1/Torment-Waking-or-Sleeping) | [AO3](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2491148)]** | **Publish Date:** November 18, 2006  
>  **Summary:**   _Eowyn seemingly cannot escape the notice of one of the Fellowship – nor, possibly, wants to. Movieverse, AU._
> 
> _[His Hope in the Darkness](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9886100/1/His-Hope-in-the-Darkness)_ | **K** | **One Shot** | **Publish Date:** November 29, 2013  
>  **Summary:**   _Boromir did not anticipate finding the lady of his choice at his birthday ball. But he did. And then she was gone. AU._
> 
> _A Valentine’s Day Courtship_ | **K+** | **One Shot** | **Modern AU** | **[[FFNET](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10313560/1/A-Valentine-s-Day-Courtship) | [AO3](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1548890)] ** | **Publish Date:** April 30, 2014  
>  **Summary:** _Boromir had never taken much notice of Valentine's Day before. Until the day Eowyn punched him during recess, and he fell head over heels. AU._  
> 
> 
> _[Her Hope in the Darkness](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10701111/1/Her-Hope-in-the-Darkness)_ | **K** | **One Shot** | **Publish Date:** September 18, 2014  
>  **Summary:**   _The ball had been just one more adventure among countless others. Yet as Eowyn continued in her journey, that night – HIM – refused to let her go. AU. Companion piece to "His Hope in the Darkness."_
> 
> _[Their Hope in the Light](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10867755/1/Their-Hope-in-the-Light)_ | **K** | **One Shot** | **Publish Date:** December 3, 2014  
>  **Summary:**   _A ring is returned, a question answered, and two weary souls are reunited. AU. Companion piece to "His Hope in the Darkness" and "Her Hope in the Darkness."_
> 
> _Bonds and Sparks_ | **K+** | **One Shot** | **Modern AU** | **[[FFNET](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12657519/1/Bonds-and-Sparks) | [AO3](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12128604)] ** | **Publish Date** : September 18, 2017  
>  **Summary:**   _A familiar scene: Eowyn is annoyed and Boromir can't get a word in edgewise. AU._

##  **\- SERIES FICS**

> _[Road to Mundburg](https://archiveofourown.org/series/78283)_ | **[Morgyn Leri](http://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri)** | **G-T** | **Series Status:** Incomplete | **Publish Date:** March 4, 2014 (est.)  
>  **Summary:** _A universe where Éowyn travels to Gondor to become Boromir's wife at age 19. Her presence in Gondor, and absence in Rohan changes things, but not so greatly that you can't see the bones of canon beneath._
> 
> _[Hope (Series)](http://archiveofourown.org/series/153797) _ | **Rosa Cotton** |   **K** | **Series Status:** Complete | **Publish Date:** April 12, 2013 (on Archive of Our Own)  
>  **Summary:** _A Cinderella-like retelling of Boromir and Eowyn. AU. Movieverse._  
>  **Note:** Series collection for "Her Hope in the Darkness", "His Hope in the Darkness", "Their Hope in the Light".

##  **\- ONE SHOTS**

> _[Distance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/132257/chapters/188606)_ |  **[Celandine](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Celandine/pseuds/Celandine)** | **K** | One Shot | Publish Date: September 30, 2004 (est.)  
>  **Summary:**   _Boromir visits Meduseld en route to Rivendell._
> 
> _[A Picnic](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2908443/1/A-Picnic)_ |  **[Alcarin Elen](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/948759/Alcarin-Elen)** | **K** | **One Shot** | **Publish Date:** April 23, 2006  
>  **Summary:** _Boromir and Éowyn go on a picnic. A few differences and a sample of Éowyn's cooking._  
> 
> _[Untitled](https://acariad.livejournal.com/2743.html)_ |  **[acariad](https://acariad.livejournal.com/)** | **K** | One Shot | Publish Date: March 3, 2012 (est.)  
>  **Summary:**   _Bormir gives Eowyn a few hints and tips at sword fighting._
> 
> _[Untitled](http://sardoniyx.tumblr.com/post/33075246929/boromireowyn-eowyn-is-the-one-wearing-the-pants)_ |  **[sardoniyx](http://sardoniyx.tumblr.com/post/33075246929/boromireowyn-eowyn-is-the-one-wearing-the-pants)** | **K** | **One Shot** | **Publish Date:** October 7, 2012  
>  **Summary:**   _boromir/eowyn . eowyn is the one wearing the pants in this relationship. xoxo_
> 
> _[Survivor’s Guilt](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3538586)_ |  **[The_Lady_Meg](http://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Lady_Meg/pseuds/The_Lady_Meg)** | **T** | **One Shot | Publish Date:** March 14, 2015  
>  **Summary:**  In which Boromir survives Amon Hen, and Fate adjusts itself accordingly.  
>  **Note:** Major Character Death.

##  **\- COMPLETE MULTI-CHAPTER FICS**

> _Sweet Disposition_ | **Sakura123 (Knightqueen)**  | **T** | **Chapters:** 100/100 | **[[FFNET](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6111505/1/Sweet-Disposition) | [AO3](http://archiveofourown.org/works/504345)] ** | **Publish Date:** July 4, 2010  
>  **Summary** :  _A 100 short stories centered around Boromir and Eowyn's relationship as friends and lovers. Obviously AU._  
> 

##  **-ABANDONED MULTI-CHAPTER FICS**

> _[Duty](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3266293/1/Duty)_ |  **[The North Wyn](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1169620/The-North-Wyn)** | **K+** | **Chapters:** 5/? | **Publish Date:** November 30, 2006  
>  **Summary:**   _In an attempt to salvage relations between Gondor and Rohan, a marriage is arranged between the Lady Eowyn of Rohan and the Lord Boromir of Gondor. This is their story._
> 
> _[Beyond Duty](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5791591/1/Beyond-Duty)_ | **[Malva](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/309997/Malva)**   | **K+** | **Chapters:** 2/? | **Publish Date:** March 4, 2010  
>  **Summary:**   _War is approaching, but the alliance between Rohan and Gondor has weakened. To tighten the loosened ties, Denethor makes the House of Eorl an offer it cannot refuse. The lives of two people take a different turn._

##  **\- GEN FICS (No Pairing)**

> _[The White Lady of Rohan](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/616187/2/Book-1-The-White-Lady-of-Rohan)_ | **[Soledad](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/173902/Soledad)** | **K+** | **Chapters:** 7/7 | **Publish Date:** February 21, 2002  
>  **Summary:** _1st Boromir story. About Boromir's way to Imladris. Now all beta-read and Completed._  
>  **Note:** Wall of text author’s notes about sticking to canon make for busywork.
> 
> _[Ice Blossom](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/625794/1/Ice-Blossom)_ | **Soledad** | **T** | **One Shot** | **Publish Date:** February 26, 2002  
>  **Summary:** Éowyn, having received Boromir's parting gift, reflects over the fate of Éorl's House. Now completed.  
>  **Note:** Text of the entire story Bold and Italicized. Bit of a strain on the eyes.  
> 
> 
> _[Will You Judge?](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2197805/1/Will-You-Judge)_ | **[TangerineBreeze](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/722570/TangerineBreeze)** | **K** | **One Shot** | **Publish Date:** December 31, 2004  
>  **Summary:** _A one-shot, about being quick to judge and whether or not we have a right to do so._  
> 
> 
> _[Friendly Advice](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6719765/1/Friendly-Advice)_ | **[ncfan](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/2048302/ncfan)** | **K+** | **One Shot** | **Publish Date:** February 6, 2011  
>  **Summary:** _-Boromir, Éowyn- "Then, I will strike down terror."_  
> 
> 
> _[The Best Men Are Moulded Out Of Faults](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10181007/1/The-Best-Men-Are-Moulded-Out-Of-Faults)_ |  **[Eris'-twin-sister](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4894523/Eris-twin-sister)** | **K** | **One Shot** | **Publish Date** : March 12, 2014  
>  **Summary:**  This is a one-shot on Éowyn's curiosity fueled exploration on Boromir's character. No A.U or non-canon pairings. Reviews are much welcomed, but no flames.
> 
> _[Black Is the Color of my True Love's Hair](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1415965/chapters/2974555)_ | **just_ann_now** | **K** | **One Shot** | Publish Date: April 4, 2014 (est.)  
>  **Summary:** _Thirteen year old Eowyn meets Boromir and decided she wants to marry him._

##  **\- ESSAYS**

> _[Hero](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8676119/1/Hero)_ |  **[Shkittles](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/2661344/Shkittles)** | **K** | **School Paper** | **Publish Date:** November 12, 2012  
>  **Summary** :  _An analytical comparison/contrast of Boromir and Eowyn._  
>  **Note:** It’s a bit odd that the essayist compares Eowyn’s basic compassion for people like Merry or Aragorn maternal or frames it as pregnancy metaphor.

##  **\- PWP FICS**

(not my favorites, but they’re for somebody)

> _[Breeding](https://archiveofourown.org/works/84221)_ | **Author Unknown** | **M** | **One Shot** | **Publish Date:** February 2nd, 2009  
>  **Summary:**   _Boromir and Eowyn talk marriage of convenience._
> 
> _[One Night in Meduseld](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9773841/1/One-Night-in-Meduseld)_ | **[Finduilas88](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/818227/Finduilas88)** | **M** | **Chapters:** 3/3 | **Publish Date:** October 18, 2013  
>  **Summary:** Eowyn knew that others would name it infatuation; a young woman's crush on a older man, handsome, charming - and out of reach. But she was determined it would be more than that.  
> 
> 
> _[Promise](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1415965/chapters/2974600)_ | **[just_ann_now](http://archiveofourown.org/users/just_ann_now/pseuds/just_ann_now)** | **M** | **One Shot** | **Publish Date:** April 4, 2014 (est.)  
>  **Summary** _:_   _Boromir hopes Eowyn finds a worthy husband, Eowyn considers to remember their moment together._


	7. Chapter 006: Stranger Things Have Happened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Title:** “[Stranger Things have Happened”](https://weber-dubois22.dreamwidth.org/104493.html)  
>  **Author:** Sakura123 ([weber_dubois22](https://weber-dubois22.dreamwidth.org/))  
>  **Category:** The Lord of the Rings  
>  **Pairing:** Boromir  & Eowyn  
>  **Spoilers:** Well, there are only spoilers if you’ve never watched the film or read LOTR.  
>  **Length:** 3560 words 19948 characters (not including the "fandom" section)  
>  **Disclaimer:** _Lord of the Rings_ and all things related are property of the J.R.R. Tolkien/Tolkien Estate, Peter Jackson and Newline Cinema. I own nothing save the essay you are going to read.  
>  **Note (EDIT: 3/222/2011):** This was originally intended for **[ship_manifesto](https://ship-manifesto.livejournal.com)** , but their moderators have been on hiatus for so long that I totally forgot about this and only when I remembered it did I just forget about the whole thing. This was my first fandom essay in about five years; it's probably clunky, but regardless, I hope you enjoy reading it.
> 
>  
> 
>   
> ****  
> Banner: ****[Veiled Vesta](http://www.fanforum.com/member.php?u=139701) @fanfourm.com  
>   
> 

**___________________________________**

**#I: INTRO  
__________________________________**

In a series like “The Lord of the Rings” romance takes third place to its storyline and numerous side stories. What romances there are are few and far between the characters, with the only major or memorable ones being between Aragorn/Arwen, Faramir/Eowyn and Sam/Rosie. None of which really interested me, despite being either cannon or endearing to read or watch in either medium of LOTR. So it is no surprise that the one couple that gets my pulse up, in a “holy shit, that could actually work” sort way, is one of created out the fandom ether.

A romantically involved Boromir and Eowyn was introduced to me around the age of either sixteen or seventeen when I stumbled across a story called _“To Hate, To Love”_ by an author named **Rosa Cotton** and since then, its an idea I always wanted to see explored beyond the “arranged marriage” angle that’s always used. Given their personalities, this is definitely a dynamic that could really work if you ignore three cannon factoids: a): Boromir’s lack of interest in marriage and complete devotion to the life of a soldier; b): Boromir’s death; c): Eowyn’s inevitable marriage to Faramir.

With that said, let us get down to business.

**#II: CHARACTER DOSSIER  
__________________________________**

**#001: Boromir - The man from Gondor;**

[ ](https://i.imgur.com/nD2DADh.jpg)

Depending on who are, one or two things identify Boromir. He is a misunderstood character in a long line of misunderstood characters or he’s the man who tried to take The Ring from Frodo Baggins. (I'm generalizing, here.) The son of Denethor and Finduilas [of Dol Amroth] and elder brother of Faramir, Boromir was born in the year 2978 of the Third Age and groomed to take his father’s place as the steward and general of the armies of Gondor (or rather, Minas Tirith). His personality is that of a headstrong, loyal and single-minded man who has a tendency to question the motives and decisions of others.

Boromir is beloved by most in his country, he cares a great deal for Gondor, his people and most of all, his family. Despite the differences between himself and his father, Denethor, their rapport is healthy enough (though it borderlines on idolization at times). If there is a strain between them, it is only because Denethor appears to think of less of his youngest, Faramir. No matter who you are, that has to be a disappointing thing to witness in a family and it certain seems that way as presented in the adaption of _The Two Towers_ (Extended Edition). Ironically, the high regard in which Denethor holds Boromir has not put a strain on the brothers. If anything, their relationship is as strong as it is because of it. As the Captain-General of Minas Tirith, Boromir is at his best on the battlefield, where most of his energy and latter life is spent fighting Mordor. As to what he does when he's not fighting or with his family is a thing of mystery to me (though one can speculate there's plenty of paperwork to keep him busy).

Given the implied sense endless fighting he's undoubtedly to have been apart of prior to his journey to Rivendell, Boromir is less inclined to readily accept the ideas of others, unable to see beyond his country’s plight and believes because Gondor is taking the brunt of Mordor’s blow, other countries have been spared the worst of it. To give a sense of his loyalty, when Gandalf (or Elrond, I forget which one it was) implies that Rohan’s loyalty is doubtful, he is quick to jump to their defense, saying that there is no possible way that Rohan is for Mordor and to think so is rather ridiculous. In regards to his relationship with the members of the Fellowship, its more or less implied that he’s a bit of an outsider (moreso than say, Gimli), no doubt because of his opinion on the use of the Ring. Everyone’s got their eye on him.

Regardless, he proved an invaluable asset to the Fellowship’s defense and welfare; Their attempt to pass over the Misty Mountains and Caradhras is the most obvious display of his attentiveness towards the group‘s endurance, hinting at the need to rest or plowing a path through the deep snow of Caradhras before they were ultimately thwarted by the mountain (and/or Saruman‘s blockade). Whether or not this is an impression left by the films, Boromir is undoubtedly closest with Merry, Pippin and Aragorn (the latter of which he seems to accept as king of Gondor a little better than he does in the movieverse). He bumps heads occasionally Aragorn and Gandalf whenever he dispenses advice or his knowledge on certain things on the journey --- most especially when he doubts the leadership skills of either one. If I‘m not mistaken, appears to pout a bit when his opinion is rebuked by either man as well.

In the both mediums, Boromir’s personality paradigm is showcased in both a positive and a negative. In the novels, “The Fellowship of the Ring” and “The Two Towers”, Boromir does not come off as the most likable character out of the fellowship. He’s a brave man and a honorable one to be sure, there’s no doubting that, but the way he’s written makes him come off as quick to frustrate or anger (my mouth literally fell open in shock when I was reeducated in who tossed the stone into The Watcher’s resting place outside Moria). Not to mention he is a tad impaitent in certain situations during his time with the fellowship. His superiority complex is more apparent in the novel than it is the films as well.

I don’t think he’s that different in the film, it’s just that the screenwriter’s (and by default Sean Bean) play up the more charming and likeable aspects of his personality through his relationship with Merry and Pippin. They go a step further and give viewers and readers what is touched upon in the books, and illustrate his relationship with Faramir (and Denethor) in the Extended Edition of “The Two Towers (2002)”. It’s one of the many liberties they take with the character that work more in his favor than against him. Peter Jackson and co. also give his killer a face through the Uruk-Hai leader Lurtz, thus giving his death so much more impact and gravitas. In novel version of “The Two Towers” Boromir is skewered by a hail of arrows from a group of nameless Orc and manages to live long enough to express, briefly, his regrets to Aragorn who arrives too late to help him. While that is true to life, there was always something so rushed about “The Departure of Boromir” that just left me feeling empty, wondering aloud “wait, that’s it?” Whereas in the film adaptation his more theatrical death leaves me mourning over the fact that he had to die so early in the series.

The most attractive attribute of Boromir’s character is that he pretty much serves as one of the many archetype’s for a fallible character and the most relatable character in “Fellowship of the Ring”, depending on how you look at him. He is not a hero the traditional sense like Faramir (especially in the bookverse), however, it doesn’t make him any less of one either. Though he has good intentions driving his desire to use the ring (at first), he would rather ignore the signs of danger and use a weapon that has proved repeatedly to corrupt and ruin those who are not its master (Sauron). 

His death was not a punishment for his actions against Frodo, but rather an unlucky turn of events. (It’s also how Tolkien wanted to end his storyline). Perhaps if he had his shield, or his comrades had been closer to where he was, he might have lived. We’ll never know, we can only speculate. Boromir’s passing is one the most tragic of endings for a character in Tolkien’s legendarium of Middle Earth. 

The sad fact of the matter is that no matter how much you tout his positives and negatives, most will never remember him beyond his death and that one moment weakness when the Ring was in reach and his willpower was at his weakest, because honestly, that’s all there is for him, isn’t it? Thus, I think that is why the fantasy of what his life might have been continues to be a compelling subject for Boromir fans. One that is ultimately a hit-and-miss formula, no matter how well written it may be.

**______________**

**#002: Eowyn - The Shieldmaiden of Rohan;**

[ ](https://i.imgur.com/mB8eL06.jpg)

Now Eowyn as a character surprises me, especially in the books. There is so little of her character in “The Two Towers” and “Return of the King” that I sometimes wonder why she is such a popular character to begin with, but the fierceness of her personality leaves such an impression that you can’t help but wonder about her. The daughter of Eomund and Théodwyn (as well as sister of Eomer, niece of King Théoden and cousin of Theodred), Eowyn is typically touted as a role model for young woman [everywhere] and a rather radical character considering Tolkien’s era.

She is a young woman born into privilege and carries the rank of shieldmaiden --- who, in Scandinavian folklore and mythology, were women chosen and trained to be warriors --- a title, which apparently serves only as a last defense if [all] the men of court of Meduseld die in battle. At the mere age of three years, she and Eomer loose their father, Eomund, to Orc ambush and later their mother, Théodwyn, who expires from the grief of loosing her husband.

In wake of his sister’s death Théoden, takes them and raises them alongside his son, Theodred. Like any of the woman of her age, Eowyn is destined to be known only for her beauty and married off to a respectable man in want of a wife (whether it is for an alliance or the general necessity to keep her line alive and thriving). Eowyn also serves as caretaker of her uncle when he becomes ill after being poisoned by Grima Wormtongue (or Saruman, in movieverse). Her station in life depresses Eowyn; this is not the life she wants to lead.

What Eowyn really wants is be treated to be like an equal among men, to be respected as a warrior trained to defend the country she loves and to gain notoriety for her deeds on the battlefield. However, everyone is quick to remind her that her place is not on the battlefield, but waiting in the wings in Meduseld, farewelling the men as they ride to battle and looking after Edoras in the king’s absence. 

During the remaining Fellowship’s stay in Rohan, she falls in love with Aragorn, who she admires, for not only his ideals, but also the promise of becoming a queen at his side (so to speak). In the adaptations of the last two films, Eowyn’s feelings for Aragorn are made more apparent through her insistence of wanting to remain at his side (especially before the battle of Helms Deep) and the general attention she pays the ranger from the north. However, in the end, whatever hopes of understanding she sought from Aragorn were crushed when he also took the stance against her fighting and told her that she was in love with an “ideal” and not Aragorn himself.

Thus, the only way Eowyn ever gets to fulfill her desires is under the guise of the alias and a helmet that masks her overt feminine features. As Dernhelm, she achieves, for a moment, the glory on the bloody battlefield she so longed for and with the help of Merry, leaves a supreme impression on the reader/viewer when she kills the [invincible] Witch King of Angmar. Thus, her great deed is achieved, but almost at the price her life. While Eowyn never obtains what she wants from Aragorn, I think the chance to fight as the warrior she was a better pay off in the long run, even if his rejection was really apart of her motivation to resort to the disguise.

For all the great things about Eowyn, my first impression of her character, particularly in the movieverse, was a whinny young woman. I never liked the fact that when she was given a task (“look after your countrymen, sister-daughter”) she protested and always wanted to fight instead. You would think that at 24 years of age, Eowyn would learn to put aside her own desires and think about the people in need of her guidance. Another irksome thing about Eowyn’s character arc was how quickly she and Faramir were thrown together. I know both the film and the book give the impression of the passage of time between them, but it happens so suddenly in [the book] that I could never buy it. I just went with it. It’s yet another element that I think Tolkien rushed in order to wrap up her storyline so he could return to the core of his epic tale. 

No, I wasn’t expecting pages of exposition for their relationship, but I would have been a lot happier with the implication that a bond was still growing instead of Faramir proposing and declaring his love to Eowyn and Eowyn, after little argument, accepting it. I think it’s why I could swallow it a little better in the film because of the implication of a relationship blooming between them instead of immediate romance and marriage (even if it was because of time-restraints). Other than that, Eowyn’s character is one I have come to adore more and more whenever I reintroduce myself back into the LOTR universe, which only speaks in volumes to the strength of her character.

**#III: THE PROS & CONS OF THEIR WOULD-BE RELATIONSHIP  
__________________________________**

From what little fanfiction there is for this ship, there is not a lot of variety in terms to how they come to be together. Under the assumption that neither of them know each other beyond reputation, some writer’s like to depict them as the unwilling part of an arranged marriage for alliance purposes between Gondor and Rohan. In addition, given what we know about either character, they are either submissive/understanding about the decision or outraged that the decision was made for them. Eowyn especially is characterized as the ‘outraged’ party in the situation, using vowing to loathe Boromir before she ever sets eyes on him, seeing it as another bar of her caged lifestyle.

Boromir’s characterization falls between dismayed about loosing his bachelorhood to a girl seventeen-years his junior or understanding and sympathetic toward the fact that Eowyn will have to marry him (the latter showing off more of his empathic side as opposed to the first). This may or may not change upon their meeting. 

If Eowyn is resentful toward the proud Boromir, it usually triggers an equal sense of resentment in him as well. This leads to the ever popular back-and-forth of witty banter and heated arguments as seen in contemporary films or novels. However, if Eowyn is simply morose towards the situation, Boromir is more inclined to be diplomatic in his approach to dealing with her. He would want make the best of an otherwise unhappy situation, and whether or not she obliges to his attempt really depends on her opinion of him. Either way, she will not be happy about this situation and as if to hint to their cannon relationship, befriends Faramir --- who is placed into the tale to act as the sympathizer and buffer between the standoffish two parties. Maybe even a love triangle catalyst if done properly.

This scenario is a familiar one; It’s _Pride & Prejudice_ (or _Taming of the Shrew_ ), the “I hate you, but will come to love you eventually through some myriad series of events that will help us get to know each other better” plot. They will spend half their time in a state of opposition with each other before finally reaching a point of comfort and eventual affection for one another. Unfortunately, given that most of these tales are incomplete (with the exception of one), I can only speculate that this was how the B/E dynamic would turn out.

I have seen a few people say that the Boromir/Eowyn relationship wouldn’t work because the two characters are much too alike (or unalike) and that Boromir would be better suited to a woman who he could ‘save’ and wait upon like a doting husband (or vice versa). Someone who’s manner is more like his brother’s (which makes me wonder if they’re implying Eowyn is simply Boromir with boobs). Eowyn is just too “free spirited” or “headstrong” for him; Eowyn would want to do things her way, he would want it his way, thus agreement between them would be a rare thing to achieve. 

In my opinion, Boromir doesn’t strike me as the type of man who wants a damsel-in-distress or lady-in-waiting, rather someone who could meet him at the same level of capability. Someone who can handle herself so he doesn’t have worry about constantly and shares his passion for battle (for whatever reasons) and love of his or her homeland. (Among other things, because I‘m sure Boromir does other things and is not a 24/7 warmonger. )

In Eowyn’s case, the majority say Faramir works for her because of his understanding and sympathetic nature. Both of them are pretty much in need of the other and it‘s at the right place and at the right time that their relationship comes to be. He does not tame her, but he does calm her down a bit. Essentially the consensus is that Boromir and Eowyn would clash far too much because of their certain similarities, but for me, I think that is exactly why they would work.

**#IV: WHY BOROMIR/EOWYN?**  
__________________________________

  
** signatures: **[weber_dubois22](https://weber-dubois22.dreamwidth.org/)** **

**SECRET REASON:** I was tired of reading Boromances (Boromir/OFC).

 **PRIME REASON:** The attachment to this couple was more or less borne out of the idea that like his relationship between Eomer/Rohan described in the chapter “Riders of Rohan”, and something of given with book!Theodred, that there could be a relationship between them on the basis of general familiarity with each other and his obvious survival. I really don’t see the two of them becoming romantically involved unless they know each other from the inside-out, otherwise it’s just sexual tension that will clearly be trumped by Aragorn and Faramir‘s, erm, general proximity to Eowyn. They have to know each other so well that spontaneous flirting or casual conversation (as he might have with Eomer or Theodred) wouldn’t be out of the question for either of them.

I ship B/E under the assumption that on what little free time Boromir might have been able to devote to aiding or visiting Rohan, he and Eowyn crossed paths enough that they could become best friends. Despite that, to my immediate recollection, there is absolutely no implication in either, the books or the films that they know each other. I also like to think that as a child Eowyn might’ve developed a bit of “hero worship” for Boromir if he visited Rohan during his youth (and by youth I mean early or mid-20s, since Eowyn was only baby in Boromir‘s teen years). Another reason I ship these two together may have something to do with Bernard Cornwell’s “Sharpe”, or rather, Richard Sharpe and two of his relationships. 

No, I’m not saying “Boromir is Richard Sharpe” or vice versa (though due to their shared actor, I flirt with the idea a lot). I saying that the particular relationship this character has with women like Teresa Moreno and Lucille Castineau (both of which remind me of Eowyn on some level), make me believe that this how Boromir would approach a relationship with such a strong willed woman like Eowyn. A bit rough on the introductory level, but as time goes on they become friendly with each other and eventually fall in love after a bit of hesitating on the confession of one affections for the other. Only there would be no cheating with whores or being accidentally shot by a Blunderbuss, because the latter does not exist in Middle Earth and Boromir wouldn’t chase wenches once he is a committed man.

So there you have it. Given that I little or no experience in the Essay area I hope I did well enough job on the illustration of my reasons for this ship and it doesn't come off too rantish.

**#V: FANDOM**  
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Outside of a couple dozen fan fics, the fandom activity for this pairing is literally non-existent with the exception of maybe myself.

**Fanfiction That You Should Read:**

Below are a list of Boromir/Eowyn stories you should _really_ take a look a look-see into; the finished ones, I.E., the short stories, are brilliant, the **Discontinued** (under the pure assumption that the stories have not been updated for ages) or **Work In progress** (hopefully) stories really have the potential to be something great if the author ever returns to them to complete them. For more Boromir/Eowyn stories check out Fanfiction.Net, because honestly, that's the only place I've been able to find stories for them both and there's only a total of 16 stories (listed under the names Boromir  & Eowyn) if you include mine which is also in the list.

**[Short Stories]:**

  * **[Torment Waking or Sleeping](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3249763/1/Torment_Waking_or_Sleeping)** / ( **[rosa_cotton](https://rosa-cotton.livejournal.com)** )
  * **[To Hate, to Love](https//www.fanfiction.net/s/2571901/1/To_Hate_to_Love)** / ( **Rosa Cotton** )
  * **[Home](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2568262/1/Home)** / ( **Rosa Cotton** )
  * **[A Picnic](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2908443/1/A_Picnic)** / ( **Alcarin Elen** )



**[Discontinued/WIP fics]:**

  * **[Beyond Duty](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5791591/1/Beyond_Duty)** / ( **Malva** )
  * **[Duty](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3266293/1/Duty)** / ( **The North Wyn** )



There is another story on ff.net (under Boromir/Faramir), called _"Uncertain Fates"_ by **Jedi Knight247** , but its really not a E/B story so to speak. I mean, it has a "Boromir/Eowyn" dynamic but its more or less focuses on Faramir trying not to get executed (by someone, I forget who) and the subplot deals with Eowyn whinning "I can't stand that man (Boromir)" and practically running for the hills once the opportunity presents itself and Boromir searching desperately for her (until he has to leave for Rivendell). I really didn't enjoy it, but maybe you will.

**LiveJournal Communities:**  
[**boromir_eowyn**](https://boromir-eowyn.dreamwidth.org) (otherwise known as _Sword &Shield_ \- **The Captain General & The Shieldmaiden**) - Currently houses nothing at the moment save a few prompt tables and my drabble-esque stories ("Sweet Disposition"


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